The market is having a good day on the back of Wall Street’s strong gains overnight. We are up 95 – the SFE Futures predicted an 83 point rise this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 196 overnight – It moved in a 216 point range and finished higher for the first time in three sessions on the back of promising economic data and a continued belief that the Federal Reserve will to cut rates when it meets next week. Talk of a 50bp cut. 3rd Q nonfarm business productivity rose 6.3%, the strongest in four years and up from the 4.9% increase economists had predicted. Financials had a good session for a change, American International Group closed up 4.6% after its CEO Martin Sullivan told investors he was “comfortable” with the company’s holdings in what he called “extreme” market conditions, but did say they may have to write down around $600m worth of assets. Also helping the sector was talk that Federal regulators and U.S lenders are considering a 5 year interest-rate freeze on subprime mortgage rates to reduce foreclosures, an announcement from President George Rush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is expected tomorrow (tonight). The NASDAQ up 1.7% – Intel Corp. had a strong session, up 3.8% on expectations of a strong year next year.

Resources up today along with the rest of the market. BHP up 96c to 4366c, RIO up 90c to 14472c. The Wall St Journal has an article saying a Chinese bid for RIO is unlikely . Just a thought – if BHP negotiates a big iron ore price increase they will have to pay more for RIO. Bit of a conundrum. Metals mixed overnight, Nickel up 0.6%, Zinc down 1% and Aluminium down 0.1%. Copper was unchanged. JP Morgan has cut its earnings forecast for Zinifex saying Nyrstar has underperformed since listing and the underwriters of the IPO have decided not to exercise their option to buy the remaining shares. They have an UNDERWEIGHT recommendation and 1100c target price. Zinifex up a big 6% today to 1598c as takeover speculation continues. Oil price after OPEC decided not to increase production but did set a new meeting for February 1 to raise output if prices continued to rise. A government report also said US oil supplies fell by more than what analysts had expected. Woodside up 76c to 4781c. Gold down $3.90. Newcrest down 16c to 3182c.

  • Yet another Leighton Holdings initiative in the Middle East. Another joint venture, this one promising revenue of US$270m in year one up to $1.4bn in year 5. LEI up 3.4% on the back of the announcement to 6479c.
  • Primary Health Care (PRY) up 19c to 1245c this morning, they have upped their stake in Symbion Health (SYB) to 21.74% and will declare their 410c a share bid unconditional if it gains more than 50% of SYB stock by the close of business Monday. SYB up 1c to 405c and PRY up 11c to 1237c.
  • Origin Energy (ORI) announced it has began construction work on the Quarantine power station on Torrens Island in South Australia. The expansion will cost around $80m and add 120 megawatts of gas fired power generation capacity to the existing 95 megawatts at the power station. It is expected to be completed late next year. ORI down 9c to 2817c.
  • Bank Of Queensland (BOQ) has outlined in a presentation this morning that operating momentum has continued into the 1Q of this year and that lending approvals for the quarter are up 28% from last year. BOQ up 9c to 1779c.
  • The Sydney Morning Herald say Soul Pattinson (SOL) are in talks to sell their 46% stake in SP Telemedia (SOT) . SingTel a possible buyer. SOL down 2c to 906c and SOT up 19% to 46c.
  • Woolworths (WOW) have made fresh contact with Warehouse Group and its biggest shareholder Stephen Tindall. WOW has hit a record high today of 3445c, up 31c.
  • Timbercorp (TIM) down a big 10% to 159.5c after coming out of its trading halt and announcing a $56.4m placement at 152.5c not including the final dividend of 4c, the first of a two part equity raising totaling $71.6m, to support consolidation and growth plans. Not the exactly the takeover announcement some were hoping for.
  • Consolidated Media Holdings currently trading under the code PBLDA has completed its 50% sale of the Hoyts Group to Pacific Equity Partners. PBLDA up 7c to 417c, CWN up 9c to 1345c.
  • You now need to pay over $100 a share for Incitec Pivot (IPL). It has hit fresh record high, up 2.1% to 10015. It has had a blinder of a year, up 208%.
  • Hensen Technologies (3c) is the only company going ex dividend today.
  • On the diary in the US tonight we have initial jobless claims and results from homebuilder Toll Brothers.

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