The market is up 61. A bit of a surprise considering the SFE Futures were up 19 overnight.

Wall St. closed up 51 overnight. The Dow was up 65 at best and down 7 at worst. The FOMC will decide on interest rates tonight in the US. Metals had a good session overnight on the LME as did the Oil price, up $1.84, and the Gold price which closed at $1015, up $10.60. The Aussie dollar climbed to 87.36c compared to 86.34c yesterday morning.

  • Street Talk was on the money this morning when it reported that AWB Ltd (AWB) would launch a capital raising as early as this morning. It will raise $459m through issuing new shares at $1 and refinance $575m in domestic corporate debt facilities. Post the raising, net debt is estimated to fall to $490m at the end of this fiscal year on Sep. 30, down from $646m last year. AWB last traded at 144.5c.
  • Talk of Tabcorp Holdings (TAH) and Tattersall’s (TTS) investing in Wesfarmers’ $1bn portfolio of hotels in QLD, NSW, SA and WA. Both have a number of options of lifting future earnings growth after the Victorian government didn’t renew their gaming licenses. TAH up 7c to 710c, TTS is unchanged at 255c.
  • Macquarie Airports (MAP) releases a letter to security holders saying it won’t pursue Global Airports recapitalization proposal as it presents unacceptable risks. MAP down 6c to 269c.
  • Ramelius Resources (RMS) bid for Dioro Exploration (DIO) has received FIRB approval and is now unconditional. RMS down 0.5c to 49.5c.
  • Fairfax Media (FXJ) Chairman Ron Walker is expected to step down from the board at November’s AGM. He will meet with institutional shareholders next week to hear their thoughts. FXJ up 4.5c to 166.5c.
  • Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments (PMV) is always ready to make acquisitions in the retail space as long as the price is right after delivering a healthy profit yesterday. PMV up 4.91% to 855c.
  • Valad Property Group (VPG) in a trading halt. Last traded at 16c.
  • Queensland Rail is apparently now considering an IPO as a preferred sale option.
  • Perilya (PEM) has announced a power outage at Broken Hill. PEM up 0.5c to 52.5c.
  • AUS/USD set to hit a fresh 13 months high.
  • Retail brokers are submitting their MYER IPO bids for stock allocation.
  • Twenty eight stocks have hit a fresh yearly high today. Some of the notables include: ANZ Bank (ANZ), ARB Corp (ARP), Computershare (CPU), James Hardie (JHX), Macquarie Group (MQG) and National Australian Bank (NAB).

The Dow Futures are down 13 at 11am.

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

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