Amcor Limited

US stocks closed higher overnight as Dubai World said it was in discussions with banks to restructure US$26 billion in debt and the talks were proceeding on a constructive basis. Global markets strongly rebounded yesterday as investors realised that Dubai's trouble might be a regional problem.

US market was closed for Thanksgiving Day holiday, but the overseas markets were strongly hit by fears of a debt default by Dubai World, Dubai government's key holding company. Dubai World, which owns strategic global assets, has asked bondholders for a standstill on about US$60 billion in debt until May.

US stocks fell for the second day after a downgrade of technology companies such as Intel. Energy and materials shares also showed losses as commodities prices tumbled.

Amcor Ltd. (ASX:AMC), the world's largest maker of plastic soft drink bottles, said Tuesday that it will buy parts of Rio Tinto Ltd.'s (ASX:RIO) Alcan Packaging business for US$2.025 billion to expand its existing business in Asia and Europe.

Wall Street ended lower in light trading on Friday as reports showed weak consumer sentiment in August and an unexpected decline in July retail sales. The weak reports prompted investors to lock in gains from the recent rally.

An encouraging employment report sent the US stocks to a more than nine months high on Friday. The Labor Department released a report that the country's unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 9.4 per cent, its first decline in 15 months.

Wall Street finished mixed overnight. Dow and S&P 500 indices ended their rising streak while Nasdaq posted its 11th straight rise led by Apple and Yahoo. Investors started to lock in their profits from a series of rallies driven by earnings reports.

The Australian shares closed flat Thursday as the market was awaiting more US corporate financial results. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 4.6 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 3763.3 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index also lost 4.6 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 3761.4 points. The market sentiment was buoyed by the better-than-expected jobs data released yesterday.

Australian shares closed lower on Friday. The Australian market sunk further into the red and languished in negative territory amidst gloomy economic news from here and overseas, according to CMC Markets.

Yesterday the Australian shares fell 1.2 per cent after the weak lead from Wall Street last week. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 dropped 42.2 points, or 1.2%, at 3,516.9, while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 35.4 points, or 1%, to 3461.3. Lacking lead from the US, the market attention will be on recent Chinese and Japanese takeover bids for the Australian companies and a string of corporate results.