The market is up 37, an 11 month high. The SFE Futures were up 31 this morning.

Wall St closed higher for the fourth straight day — up 50. Dow up 80 at best and down 21 at worst. The oil price was up slightly to $71.31 and Gold couldn’t break through that $1000 mark and fell $2.70 to $997. The Aussie dollar climbed to 86.29c vs. 86.20c yesterday morning.

Making the news today…

  • The AFR reports Paladin Energy (PDN) is planning a uranium spending spree post its capital raising quoting its CEO John Borshoff: “We want to build a war chest and be in a great position to capitalize on where we are…” One guess is that they may buy into WA Metals (WME), which has new management & a significant known resource in Namibia, not far from PDN. PDN down 4.2% to 469c.
  • Planet Gas (PGS) — New Hope Coal (NHC) have taken a 20% stake in emerging alternative energy company PGS (Planet Gas Ltd). A very small investment by NHC’s standards. PGS are cum a 1:4 rights issue at 5c and was described in out morning meeting as a cheap spec buy. Planet Gas is an Australian Coal Bed Methane company, with CBM acreage in the USA. PGS up 3.3% to 16.5c.
  • Macquarie Group (MQG) has told the GSJB Were 5th Australian Annual Investment Forum that the operational performance of most of its major businesses has improved in the 1Q, market conditions have improved and that it maintains 1H10 profit guidance. MQG up 35c to 5007c.
  • Sigma Pharmaceuticals (SIP) raised $134m at 107c a share via its institutional placement. SIP down 5.2% to 110c.
  • Gindalbie Metal (GBG) says its profit almost halved for the financial year 2008/09 as it continues to develop its iron ore mine. GBG up 1.63% to 93.5c.
  • Boart Longyear (BLY) says it has completed its retail entitlement offer raising around $US175m and says it has no debt maturing until April 2012. BLY up 1c to 28.5c.
  • Ansell’s (ANN) CEO Doug Tough has resigned but will stay on until March 2010. ANN down 2.22% to 927c.
  • Woolworths (WOW) has appointed Don Stallings as the CEO of its new hardware JV with Lowe’s Co. WOW up 16c to 2847c.
  • The Mongolian government is on the verge of signing a final investment agreement with Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto (RIO) over the US$3bn Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in Mongolia. RIO up 32c to 5850c.
  • ARB Corp (ARP), Computershare (CPU), IRESS Market Technology (IRE) and Toll Holdings (TOL) have hit a fresh yearly high.
  • Credit Suisse upgrades Telstra to Outperform from Underperform. Raises target price to 400c from 330c.

The Dow Futures were up 10 this morning.

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

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