Good start to the week — the market is up 45. The SFE Futures were up 41 this morning.

The Dow closed up 114, highest close in 9 months. Dow up 181 at best and up 2 at worst. Both Oil and Gold fell but Metals had a good session on the LME. The Aussie dollar fell to 83.49c from 84c. The S&P 500 was up for the fourth straight week.

The Results season gets underway in a bigger way this week. Main Results from the CBA, BHP and Telstra with Leighton Holdings, Cochlear, Computershare and JB Hi-Fi also reporting amongst others.

In the news today…

  • Bendigo & Adelaide Bank (BEN) has announced a capital raising along with its FY result. It has announced a 1-for-12 non-renounceable entitlement offer at 675c a share in a hope of raising $173m and a placement to institutions to raise $127m. It also announced a FY net profit (inc significant items) of $173.2m, down 26% and below analysts expectations of $185m. BEN in a trading halt and last traded at 817c.
  • Crane Group (CRG) announced a FY09 profit (before significant items) of $56.4m, down 12%, just below its guidance of a 10% fall. The share price is down 10% after it warned that earnings would fall further this year. They don’t expect a recovery in the building sector until the 2H FY10.
  • Goodman Group (GMG) has completed the institutional component of $1.3bn equity raising. It has raised $923m at 40c a share. Price up 12%.
  • Transpacific Industries Group (TPI) TPI down 1.7% on earnings guidance.
  • Premier Investments (PMV) announced a profit upgrade after better-than-expected sales from its Just Group subsidiary. It expects pre-tax profit of $106m-$108m. PMV, which is majority owned by Solomon Lew, is up 5.02%.

In other news…

  • Not a lot of positive remarks regarding West Australian Newspapers’ (WAN) profit result on Friday. Patersons Securities maintain their Buy recommendation and one other broker expects it to outperform, but two brokers persist with their Sell recommendations and another downgraded it to Hold from Buy. WAN down 8c to 607c. News Corp is having a good day — up 3.8%.
  • Street Talk suggests Westfield Group (WDC) will announce a $3bn capital raising when it releases its result later in the month. Up 2.5% today.
  • Housing finance data – seasonally adjusted approvals for housing loans increased 1.1% for the month, below the 2% economists expected.
  • IRESS Market Technology (IRE), Biota Holdings (BTA), Customers (CUS), Mincor Resources (MIN) and Premier Investments (PMV) have all hit a fresh yearly high.
  • Front page of The Age says China is accusing Rio Tinto of ripping them off $123bn in a 6 year period of commercial espionage. Lets hope they don’t sue (!)

The Dow Futures are up 1 at midday…

MARCUS PADLEY is the Author of the MARCUS TODAY Daily Stockmarket Newsletter.

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