BoJ increases monetary stimulus, US growth revised up

The global monetary easing continued on Thursday with the Bank of Japan expanding its asset-purchase programme for the third time in four months. The asset-purchase fund was increased from 66 trillion yen to 76 trillion yen.

Meanwhile, most US data on Thursday were positive.

Revised data show that the US economy grew at a 3.1 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the fastest pace since late 2011.

Existing home sales surged 5.9 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million units. It was the fastest sales pace since November 2009.

However, the Conference Board's index of US leading indicators fell 0.2 percent in November.

There were mixed data from Europe.

In the euro area, the European Commission's consumer confidence indicator rose to -26.6 in December from -26.9 in November.

However, in the UK, the GfK NOP consumer confidence index plunged to -29 in December from -22 in December. This comes after flat retail sales in November.