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 18    DAY'S CHANGE
             CLOSE        IN POINTS        HIGH            LOW
==============================================================
NEW YORK      13130.45     -36.75        14164.53     12133.40
             (1300 EDT)                   (Oct 09)    (Mar 14)
LONDON          6279.3       +1.5          6732.4       5858.9
                                          (Jun 15)    (Aug 16)
TOKYO         15207.86     -41.93        18261.98     14837.66
                                          (Jul 09)    (Nov 21)
FRANKFURT      7850.74     +25.3          8105.69      6447.70
                                          (Jul 16)    (Mar 14)
PARIS          5509.37      -5.51         6168.15      5265.47
                                          (Jun 01)    (Aug 16)
SYDNEY          6236.9      -26.6          6828.7       5653.6
                                          (Nov 01)    (Mar 05)
HONG KONG     26732.87    +136.29        31638.22     18664.88
                                          (Oct 30)    (Mar 05)
--------------------------------------------------------------
FOREIGN EXCHANGE/GOLD BULLION AT 1800 GMT
--------------------------------------------------------------
Euro/Dollar                    1.4408                 (1.4382)
Dollar/Yen                     113.27                 (113.23)
Pound/Dollar                   2.0134                 (2.0211)
Gold (ounce)                   801.85                 (793.65)
==============================================================