The market is finishing the week strongly and is up 32. The SFE Futures were up 42 this morning.

Wall St. closed up 80. Up 5 days in a row to highest close for the year. Dow was up 86 at best and down 38 at worst. Metals were weaker with the big mover being Lead which fell 12.3%. Oil put on 63c and Gold fell 30c. The Aussie dollar was up again to 86.33c versus 86.29c yesterday morning.

In the news today…

  • Seven Network (SEV) and Consolidated Media Holdings (CMJ) call a temporary truce. SEV can’t buy any CMJ shares for a year in return for two seats on the CMJ board. CMJ down 8% — basically puts an end to any takeover offer for the next year. SEV up 1.8%.
  • Fairfax Media (FXJ) — Share price breakout. FXJ up another 3c to 169c. It broker through its resistance of around 164c. Talk of it being a takeover target now that CMJ is out of the picture.
  • Carsales.com (CRZ) made an encouraging debut yesterday. It closed at 399c, up 49c from its IPO price of 350c. CRZ takes a breather, down 5c to 394c this morning.
  • Talk of B&B Infrastructure Grp (BBI) negotiating a deal with Brookfield Asset Management that will result in it buying 50% of its Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal and inject around $600m through a capital raising. BBI up 9% on the news.
  • Good news for retailers as Myer says consumer confidence is improving and management is optimistic about outlook for 2010 and beyond. MYER has started its IPO process with the prospectus is due out on the 28 September. Private equity group TPG Capital is the current owner.
  • Talk of the ACCC being concerned about the NAB’s takeover of Challenger Financial Group’s mortgage business. NAB up 1.3% to 2913c.
  • Some of the larger stocks going ex dividend on Monday include: Brambles (BXB) 12.5c, CSL Ltd (CSL) 40c, DWS Advanced Business Solutions (DWS), Oil Search (OSH), SMS Management & Technology (SMX) and Wotif.com (WTF).
  • Stocks hitting fresh yearly highs include: ANZ Bank (ANZ), David Jones (DJS), Oil Search (OSH), Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments (PMV), Super Cheap Auto (SUL) and United Group (UGL).
  • Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 0.6% after its 2Q GDP was revised to 0.6% from 0.9%, economists expected no change.
  • Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the US economy is no longer on the brink of disaster but it still has a “long way to go”.
  • US$ has hit a fresh 2009 low. It has also hit a fresh 2009 low against the Euro for three consecutive days.

The Dow Futures are down 15 at midday.

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

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