Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia share rally may stall at 17-mth highs

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Australia share rally may stall at 17-mth highs Dec 19th 2012, 22:47 MELBOURNE | Wed Dec 19, 2012 5:47pm EST MELBOURNE Dec 20 (Reuters) - Australian shares may struggle to extend gains beyond 17-month highs on Thursday after U.S. stocks fell as talks to avert a fiscal crisis by the end of the year soured. * Local share price index futures fell 1 point to 4,625, a 7.2-point premium to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark rose 22.6 points to 4,617.8 on Wednesday, the highest close since July 8, 2011. * New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.4 percent to 4,037.6 in early trade. New Zealand's GDP grew 0.2 percent in the third quarter, below forecasts of 0.4 percent. * U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday as politicians struggled to come up with a deal to avoid early 2013 tax hikes and spending cuts. * Copper slipped on uncertainty over the outlook for demand, increased by a fall in the number of U.S. house building projects being started in November * Macquarie Group Ltd has emerged as the lead bidder to buy Robeco, four people familiar with the matter said this week. The asset management arm of Dutch bank Rabobank NV RABN.UL could fetch around 3 billion euros ($4 billion), one of the sources said.. * Australia's competition watchdog gave conditional approval to an alliance between struggling national flag carrier Qantas Airways and Dubai's Emirates, but approved it for only five years, not 10 as had been sought. . * Takeover target Graincorp holds its annual meeting in Sydney. ----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2053 GMT ------------ INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 1436.6 -0.7% -10.190 USD/JPY 84.4 0.24% 0.200 10-YR US TSY YLD 1.8066 -- -0.014 SPOT GOLD 1668.73 -0.05% -0.810 US CRUDE 89.51 1.80% 1.580 DOW JONES 13260.67 -0.68% -90.29 ASIA ADRS 130.24 1.03% 1.33 ------------------------------------------------------------- * Wall St slips as 'cliff' talks sour, but hopes remain * Oil rises on U.S. budget deal hopes, demand optimism * Gold steady, U.S. budget talks in focus * Copper slips on uncertain outlook for demand For a digest of the day's business stories in Australian newspapers, double click on (Reporting by Miranda Maxwell; Editing by John Mair) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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