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Stocks gain...Beige book due...China trade decline eases


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TOKYO (AP) — International stock markets posted gains today after China reported improved exports in December, salving nerves about the world's No. 2 economy. Still a rally in Shanghai's stock market was short-lived. Futures point to a strong start today on Wall Street. Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose nearly 3 percent to above $31 a barrel. The dollar gained against the yen and the euro.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve releases its latest Beige Book this afternoon. The report tracks business conditions in the central bank's 12 regions. The Fed's last report found nine of the regional banks reporting modest or moderate growth, enough to allow policymakers to feel comfortable with lifting interest rates from historic lows. Also, the Treasury releases federal budget figures for December.

BEIJING (AP) — China's trade shrank in December but the decline was smaller than November's in a positive sign for lackluster economic growth. Exports declined 1.4 percent from a year earlier to $224.1 billion, an improvement over the previous month's 6.8 percent contraction. Customs data shows imports were down 7.6 percent at $164 billion, a smaller loss than November's 8.7 percent fall. The data reflect weak global demand and a decline in domestic economic growth.

BERLIN (AP) — The German government says it has balanced its budget for the second consecutive year in 2015. Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party has made ending new borrowing a key plank of its economic policy. The government was able to do without new borrowing in 2014, a year earlier than planned, for the first time since 1969. The Finance Ministry says it recorded a surplus of 12.1 billion euros ($13.1 billion) last year.

GENEVA (AP) — Organizers of the World Economic Forum scheduled next week in Davos, Switzerland have decided North Korea is not welcome following its recent claim of a hydrogen bomb test. The WEF says in a statement Wednesday that an invitation had been extended to North Korea in the autumn "in view of positive signs coming out of the country" and that Pyongyang had accepted. The invitation has been withdrawn unless North Korea "acts as a responsible and responsive member of the international community."

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