Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares seen pushing ahead to fresh 17-mth highs

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Australia shares seen pushing ahead to fresh 17-mth highs Dec 18th 2012, 22:45 MELBOURNE | Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:45pm EST MELBOURNE Dec 19 (Reuters) - Australian shares may rally beyond 17-month highs on Wednesday after U.S. stocks, oil and base metal prices all rose on signs of progress in talks to avoid the U.S. "fiscal cliff". * The stock index futures rose 0.6 percent to 4,631, a 35.8-point premium to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index. The benchmark climbed 0.5 percent on Tuesday to 4,595.2. * New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.6 percent to 4,002.5 in early trade. * U.S. stocks rallied on strong volume on Tuesday, capping off the S&P 500's best two-day run in a month, on confidence that a deal would be struck in Washington to avoid painful spending cuts and tax hikes that could hurt the economy. * Copper consolidated gains as progress in the U.S. budget negotiations eased fears the world's biggest economy could tip into recession. * New Zealand's annual current account deficit narrowed slightly in the third quarter as the trade surplus shrank but foreign investors earned less from local investments, data showed. * Investors await comment from surfwear company Billabong International after it put its shares in a trading halt on Monday ahead of a possible takeover bid for the company, the latest development in a tumultuous year in which three previous takeover offers failed. ----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2224 GMT ------------ INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 1446.79 1.15% 16.430 USD/JPY 84.2 0% 0.000 10-YR US TSY YLD 1.8205 -- 0.047 SPOT GOLD 1670.19 0.04% 0.650 US CRUDE 87.72 0.60% 0.520 DOW JONES 13350.96 0.87% 115.57 ASIA ADRS 128.91 1.77% 2.24 ------------------------------------------------------------- * Wall St climbs on economy bets as it looks past 'cliff' * Oil rises on 'fiscal cliff' optimism, refinery problems * Gold price falls 2 pct on hope of US fiscal deal * Copper consolidates after fiscal cliff progress 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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