The U.S. Dollar Index is trading at 95.28 up with +0.18% percent or +0.16 point. The Dow Futures is trading at 25,721.00  up with  +0.02% percent or  +4.00 point. The S&P 500 Futures is trading at 2,862.25  up with +0.03% percent or  +1.00 point.  The Nasdaq Futures is trading at 7,429.75  with a loss of -0.05% percent or -1.75 point.

TODAY’S FACTORS AND EVENTS

The dollar rose on Thursday as investors bought the greenback on the back of political turmoil in Australia and after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting indicated the U.S. central bank is on course to further raise interest rates.

The Australian dollar tumbled more than half a percent after Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership could be doomed following the resignation of three senior ministers.

Turnbull said he would hold a second leadership vote on Friday if he received a letter signed by the majority of the ruling Liberal party.

The Aussie was down 0.8 percent to $0.7293 as of 0356 GMT, not far off the 19-month low of $0.72025 touched on Aug. 15.

PREVIOUS DAY ACTIVITY

For the day the Dow is trading at 25,733.60 with a loss of  -0.34% percent or -88.69 point. The S&P 500 is trading at 2,861.82 with a loss of -0.040% percent or -1.14 point. The Nasdaq Composite is trading at 7,889.10 up with +0.38% percent or +29.92  point.

WORLD MARKETS

Other leading market index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000 Index closed at 1,722.54 up with +0.26% percent or +4.50 point; the S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 1,091.20 up with +0.16% percent or +1.79 point; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index closed at 2,034.49 with a loss of -0.0088% percent or -0.18 point; the S&P 100 Index closed at 1,267.09 up with +0.043% percent or +0.55 point; the Russell 3000 Index closed at 1,702.76 up with +0.0072% percent or +0.12 point; the Russell 1000 Index closed at 1,588.52  with a loss of -0.014% percent or -0.22 point;