US MARKETS PUSH INTO RECORD TERRITORY

American indices are moving higher off the back of news that US manufacturing expanded last month at its fastest pace in 3 months, as increases in orders and production made it the strongest year for factories since 2004. It is just one of many improving benchmarks showing improvements in the economy, on top of rising domestic business investment and higher spending by American households.

As it stands the Dow Jones is up 0.16% at 24,863.29 while the S&P500 is up 0.41% at 2,706.97. The Nasdaq leads again up 0.62% to 7,050.12.

In individual stock news, Intel Corp moved lower while rival AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) jumped by over 7% following a report about a design flaw in Intel chips. SCANA Corp rocketed up to the top of the S&P with a 23% gain after Dominion Energy Inc announced it would buy SCANA in an all-stock deal worth roughly $7.9 billion.

European markets opened a little higher this morning led by the DAX in Germany. It still leads the indices as we head towards the close. The FTSE was weighed down by a stronger Pound but gains came thick and fast for Next (pictured), Associated British Foods and Marks and Spencers after they released new data showing Christmas sales were better than expected.

Amongst Asian indices, the Shanghai SSE Composite finished highest at the close (3,369 points) tailed by the FTSE Hong Kong and South Korean KOSPI (up 0.28% and 0.27% each).