The latest close of key indices on major world stock exchanges and the London closing values of the euro, the Japanese yen, the British pound and gold bullion (previous day's closes in brackets).

==============================================================
          December 17    DAY'S CHANGE
             CLOSE        IN POINTS        HIGH            LOW
==============================================================
NEW YORK       13272.71     -67.14       14164.53     12133.40
              (1300 EDT)                 (Oct 09)     (Mar 14)
LONDON           6277.8     -119.2        6732.4        5858.9
                                         (Jun 15)     (Aug 16)
TOKYO          15249.79    -264.72      18261.98      14837.66
                                         (Jul 09)     (Nov 21)
FRANKFURT       7825.44    -122.92       8105.69       6447.70
                                         (Jul 16)     (Mar 14)
PARIS           5514.88     -90.48       6168.15       5265.47
                                         (Jun 01)     (Aug 16)
SYDNEY           6263.5     -228.2        6828.7        5653.6
                                         (Nov 01)     (Mar 05)
HONG KONG      26596.58    -967.06      31638.22      18664.88
                                         (Oct 30)     (Mar 05)
--------------------------------------------------------------
FOREIGN EXCHANGE/GOLD BULLION AT 1800 GMT
--------------------------------------------------------------
Euro/Dollar                    1.4382                 (1.4448)
Dollar/Yen                     113.23                 (113.38)
Pound/Dollar                   2.0211                 (2.0215)
Gold (ounce)                   793.65                 (792.90)
==============================================================