Financial markets continued to be directed by the US fiscal cliff. President Obama threatened to veto the alternative plan proposed by the GOP but optimism remained that a deal will be finalized before the year-end. Housing data contained some pleasant surprises, thus containing the decline. The BOE minutes for the December meeting indicated that the MPC members voted unanimously to leave the Bank rate at 0.5%. David Miles was, however, the only out of the 9 members who opposed keeping the asset purchase program at 375B pound. Wall Street fell with the DJIA and S&P 500 indices losing -0.76% and -0.74% respectively. In the commodity sector, crude oil prices soared with the WTI contract for January delivery (expired today) gaining +1.8% to settle at 89.51 while the more-active February contract advanced rose +1.8% to 89.98 Brent for February delivery added +1.4%110.36. Gold remained weakened after the sharp fall on Wednesday. The benchmark Comex contract slipped -0.18% during the day.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.