Trading Room home page  Aust dollar closes higher  Market watch
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watch    December 31 2012, 5:20PM     The move was not sustained
however as the currency gave up some ground in the afternoon,
staying within its post-Christmas range between 103.3 US cents
and 104 US cents.    "As soon as we hear something from the US,
that will really determine near-term direction," Mr Breen said.
"It's a very quiet and illiquid market today."  Negotiations
between US President Barack Obama and legislators in the US
Congress over the fiscal cliff looked set to go down to the
wire.  Talks centred on the best way to avoid a series of tax
hikes and spending cuts, which were tipped to push the US
economy back into recession and stunt world growth, coming into
effect in early 2013.  At 1700 AEDT, the Australian dollar was
at 89.42 Japanese yen, down from Friday's close of 89.67 yen.
The local unit was at 78.66 euro cents, up from 78.35 euro cents
previously.  Meanwhile, t