The market is up 21 which compares with a 19 point rise on Wall St and the SFE Futures up 16 points this morning.

Dow Jones closed up 19. Slow day. First four day rise in 2 months. FTSE down 0.65%, Germany up 0.03% and France down 0.04% S&P500 up 0.20%. NASDAQ up 0.44%. Metals down small. Oil price almost unchanged — fell a cent. Gold up $4.40 to $984.40. Still at a 3 Month high.

AUSTRALIA AVOIDS TECHNICAL RECESSION — The Q1 GDP number has been released this morning. Up a seasonally adjusted 0.4% against forecasts for -0.2% at the beginning of the week. After the better than expected performance from Exports in yesterday’s Balance of Payments number there were a few economists suggesting that this number might be positive and it is. Australia has escaped the popular definition of “Recession” (two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth).

Making the news today…

  • Macarthur Coal (MCC) CEO Nicole Hollow says it is on track to beat its previous guidance for FY coal production of 3.9m tonnes.
  • Kagara Zinc (KZL) has requested it shares to be suspended further. It now expects to make an announcement about a significant capital raising sometime before Friday. It was due to resume trading on Wednesday.
  • Cudeco (CDU) will raise $52.5m at 250c a share to be used for the development of its Rocklands Project.
  • Panoramic Resources (PAN) has upgraded its Savannah Project.
  • Citadel (CGG) announces success in its underground diamond drill program at Jabal Sayid.
  • Carbon Energy (CNX) in a trading halt.
  • GPT Group (GPT) up 7.2% on their quarterly trading update.
  • JP Morgan lifts Macquarie Group’s (MQG) target price to 3243c from 2925c after announcing it had raised $669m via its retail share placement plan.
  • Fortescue Metals (FMG) up nearly 8% on improved iron ore sentiment after RIO’s recent contract price settlement with in Asia and positive economic news coming out of China. Not good timing from RBS Equities who cut Fortescue Metals (FMG) to Sell from Hold this morning and cut its target price to 233c from 248c
  • JP Morgan up their target price on Qantas Airways (QAN) by 19% to 298c from 250c saying the loyalty deal with Woolworths could add $160m to QAN FY10 revenue.
  • The Dow Futures suggest an 11 point fall on Wall Street tonight.

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