Markets mixed after US economic figures released
There has been another flurry of economic figures in the United States, with the consumer price measure of inflation recording its biggest rise in eight months.
The CPI was up 0.5 per cent in December.
There has also been an unexpected rise in US housing starts and a report by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve is pointing to a surprisingly sharp increase in factory activity in the US mid-Atlantic region.
Shares in IBM have weighed on the overall market, with investors selling out ahead of the company's profit results expected after the close of trade.
On the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones industrial average has closed down nine points at 12,568.
Technology stocks have come under further selling pressure after disappointing forecasts issued by computer maker Apple and Lam Research Corporation.
The high-tech Nasdaq composite index is 36 points lower at 2,443, a slide of 1.5 per cent.
The British market has managed a small recovery, with London's FT-100 index recouping just six points to 6,210.
Yesterday the Australian share market resumed its upward march, with the All Ordinaries index putting on 25 points to end at 5,651.
The resource and banking sectors were the mainstays.
BHP Billiton shares regained 22 cents to $24.74 and Woodside Petroleum jumped 90 cents to $36.60 after announcing record production and sales figures for 2006.
Overnight on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the Share Price Index 200 contract has closed down eight points at 5,635.
The 10-year bond contract is up 0.5 at 94.13, with the implied yield easing to 5.87 per cent.
On foreign exchange markets, the US dollar has remained close to four-year highs against the Japanese yen after the Bank of Japan decided to hold interest rates unchanged.
The Australian dollar has edged ahead overnight. At 7am AEDT it was being quoted at 78.85 US cents, up one-tenth of a cent on yesterday's local close.
On the cross currencies it was at 60.88 euros, 95.59 Japanese yen, 39.95 pence Sterling and against the New Zealand dollar it was at 1.133.
The gold price has eased to $US627.80 an ounce.
Oil prices have fallen sharply after US inventory data showed a big rise in stockpiles of crude and oil futures in New York have been to 20 month lows.
The spot price of West Texas crude has dropped $1.79 to $US50.51 a barrel.

Copper prices spiral down
by Antony Barton
Copper fell to its lowest price for nine months in early January.It traded at $5,625 (£2,884) a tonne earlier this month, the lowest since April, and suffered a 10 per cent slide within three days. The price was around 36 per cent down from its $8,800 (£4,560) high in May last year but almost triple its price four years ago (News, 11 May 2006).Car production, power grids and construction pushed up copper prices fivefold between 2001 and the end of 2006. Asian countries, which relied on the metal for building projects, were central to driving up the price.Andrew Cole, senior base metals analyst at Metal Bulletin Research, told SM he was not surprised that copper had fallen, but by how far: "It is a combination of weak demand from the US due to the housing slowdown, Chinese consumers playing a waiting game and investors repositioning themselves with a less bullish stance towards this market's prospects."He added the Chinese were likely to buy with vigour over the next few weeks to replace supplies after the government stockpiling agency and manufacturers de-stocked heavily last year.The speed at which copper prices fell was far slower than the speed with which they rose and Cole said copper could soon reach a more familiar price. When asked whether other metals would follow the same trend, he said each was following its own. Aluminium is in strong demand but production is surging, especially from China, pointing to a drag on price through surplus in 2007. Tin prices, which also fell this month, depend on how the Indonesian government's crackdown on the tin smelting industry impacts on its supply. The situation will be easier to determine over the next month.Oil also fell sharply this month, with prices in New York and London falling to below $56 (£29) a barrel for the first time since 2005

Encore buys 20 million barrels of oil reserves
By DAN PILLER
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH - Encore Acquisition Co. of Fort Worth said Wednesday that it has bought about 20 million barrels of oil reserves in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming for $400 million from Anadarko Petroleum of Houston.
Encore said the properties have an estimated life of about 14 years and will require about $17 million to develop from their current daily production of about 4,000 barrels of oil from 614 wells.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter and includes a gas-processing plant and an oil and natural gas pipeline gathering system.
Encore President Jon Brumley said the company believes that the properties will generate about $50 million in cash flow this year and next. "These properties can produce with a relatively modest $7 million annual investment, and the remaining $43 million is available to grow production or reduce debt," Brumley said.
Shares of Encore (ticker: EAC) closed at $23.42, up $1, in trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Encore, organized in 1998, is primarily an oil producer in older fields of North Dakota and West Texas
The sale by Anadarko is part of that company's strategy announced late last year to divest several major properties in Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming and the Gulf of Mexico to raise up to $9 billion to reduce debt incurred in its $22.5 billion purchase last year of Kerr-McGee Corp. and Western Gas Resources.
Anadarko has sold its Canadian subsidiary for $4.24 billion and is looking for a buyer for its once-thriving Giddings Field in South-Central Texas, which was developed by Union Pacific Resources Group of Fort Worth.
Anadarko bought Union Pacific Resources in 2000 for $8.2 billion.