Aluminum fell for a sixth day, headed for its longest losing streak in nearly three months. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 13 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,217. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped two points, or 0.1 per cent, to 2,030. The broader All Ordinaries index added 14.90 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 5,286.5. That works out to about 117 companies this week, including Verizon Communications, eBay, Caterpillar and Alphabet. "The major data points for investors are really still going to be with earnings, getting a sense of how confident businesses are, demand and pricing", said Eric Wiegand, senior portfolio manager at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. Casinos and hotel operator Crown Resorts gained 3.5 percent after reporting a 10 percent increase in Q1 revenue from gaming operations at its Australian resorts. The Shanghai benchmark fell 3.1 percent to 3,320.68. Japan's trade deficit in September was a worse than forecast 114.48 trillion yen ($95 billion) as exports slowed, especially to China. Team Health vaulted $10.09, or 19.2 percent, to $62.59. REBOOT: IBM shares tumbled 5.4 per cent a day after the company's latest earnings report showed that weak hardware sales and a strong dollar brought down its revenue down. Still, the equity benchmark has trimmed its decline from an April record to 12 percent as shares rebounded in October from a quarterly selloff triggered by concern over China's slowdown and Volkswagen AG's cheating scandal. Sony Corp shares soared 4.4 percent after Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. agreed to pay up as much as $8 million to resolve a lawsuit by employees over the theft of their personal information in a computer hack linked to the studio's release of the movie "The Interview". Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, rose 1.8 percent after saying it plans to spin off its China business, which has stumbled recently. Malaysia's KLSE Composite index was up 0.1 percent and Singapore's Straits Times index was up 0.2 percent. The euro was up 0.1 percent to $1.1355, adding to Tuesday's modest gains. But given recent upbeat comments by central bank officials and the finance minister, and the fact that the BOJ already controls most of the market in the government securities it has been buying to pump money into the economy, "The big question is whether the Bank of Japan will do anything about it during its meeting next week". ENERGY: Benchmark USA crude fell 71 cents to $45.58 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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