Great start to the week — the market is up 113 — the SFE Future were up 69 this morning on the back of Wall Street big session.

Wall St. closed 156 higher on Friday. The Dow was up 169 at best and down 3 at worst. European markets were stronger and metals had a big night in London on Friday. Oil price hit a 10 month high to $73.19 and the Gold price posted its largest gain in a month. The Aussie went up — now at 83.76c.

Results today:

  • Fairfax (FXJ) — Slightly better than consensus and guidance.
  • WorleyParsons (WOR) — Below expectations and guidance for a lower results next year. Price down 5% initially.
  • Challenger Financial Group (CGF) — Price up 1% first thing. No surprises. Number was pre-announced.
  • Austereo (AEO) — In line
  • ConnecEast (CEU) — In line — they recently flagged a large writedown. In a trading halt to raise $421m through an institutional placement and a pro rate entitlement offer. 1 for 2 offer at 33c a share. They say they are doing it to eliminate refunding risk in 2010.
  • ING Office Fund (IOF) — Result was in line.
  • Breville (BRG) up 4% on results.
  • Big results tomorrow: SUN, OSH, ALL, SEK, FLT, AWE

Other news…

  • Telstra (TLS) ex dividend 14c this morning and down 10c.
  • Woodside (WPL) ex dividend 55c this morning nut up 143c.
  • Boral (BLD) ex dividend 5.5c this morning and up 33c.
  • Stocks ex dividend tomorrow (last day to buy and get the dividend) include: AAX, ANN, BPT, MCR (4c), ORG (25c), PTM (12c), REF, SGN, WES (60c)
  • The Patersons analyst has looked in more detail at the Billabong results on Friday and says it’s a SELL.
  • Charlie Aitken says switch from James Hardie (JHX) to Mirvac Group (MGR) or Stockland (SGP). He believes JHX tracks US housing starts.
  • RBS Equities ups Brambles (BXB) to Buy from Hold and target price to 825c from 563c – they see strong leverage to an improving economy.
  • Fortescue Metals (FMG) and BC Iron (BCI) have formed a Nullagine iron ore Joint venture.
  • Goldman Sachs JB Were says the ASX 200 will hit 5000 by Christmas – up 16.5% from here (in four months).
  • Linc Energy (LNC) up 6.5% on exploration news.
  • Newcrest (NCM) and Lihir Gold (LGL) were both upped by a brojer to Outperform from neutral saying commodity prices and FX changes appear not be to assumed in the current share price.
  • Arrow Energy (AOR), Flexigroup (FXL), Troy Resources (TRY) and Wotif.com (WTF) have all hit a fresh yearly high.

The Dow Futures are up 57 at midday.

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

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