The market is up 40. The SFE Futures were up 19 this morning.

Wall St. closed up 21. Dow up 67 at best and down 16 at worst. Metals had a good session overnight in London, as did the Oil price which closed at $73.27. Gold also closed up $8.90 to $1057. The Aussie dollar was higher at 90.72c compared to 90.48c yesterday morning.

Making the news today…

  • Another IPO being flagged, this time in the property trust sector. Morgan Stanley’s Real Estate arm “Investa” is putting a number of office towers into a vehicle with a view to doing a $750m IPO. IPO’s last week had their biggest week of the year, with more than $US10bn raised, accounting for more than half of 2009’s $US18bn total.
  • An independent experts report suggests to Babcock & Brown Infrastructure (BBI) holders that unless they accept a $1.8bn recapitalization proposal they risk ending up with nothing. BBI down 0.1c to 4.5c.
  • AFR talking about Lend Lease moving to a stapled structure (page 51). In which case it could end up in the property trust sector. This should be good for the share price as the property trust exposed funds will need to up their exposure to the LLC REIT instrument. But wouldn’t get too excited just on that issue. LLC up 6c to 1053c.
  • The Australian reports that BHP Billiton (BHP) is in talks to takeover iron ore junior United Minerals for around $220m or 140c a share. UMC last traded at 91c.
  • Transurban Group (TCL) has reached an agreement with the NSW government for a $550m upgrade to the Hills M2 motorway in northwestern Sydney. TCL up 7c to 427c.
  • Incitec Pivot (IPL) maintains their Standard & Poor’s BBB (Outlook Stable) rating. IPL up 7c to 427c.
  • Macquarie Media (MMG), which had a price and volume breakout yesterday, announces its American Consolidated Media unit is likely to breach its lending covenants when it files its accounts for the year to Sept. 30. MMG down 10c to 223c.
  • Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (BEN) has released its Investor Pack — says the fundamentals for its margin lending business remains attractive. BEN up 10c to 971c.
  • Rio Tinto (RIO) intends to cancel its secondary listing on the New Zealand stock exchange. RIO stock also trades on the London the New York exchanges. RIO up 6cc to 6196c.
  • Toll Holdings (TOL) has acquired Footwork Express Japan for $95m. It will use existing reserves to pay for it. TOL up 5c to 862c.
  • Stocks hitting fresh yearly highs include: Brockman Resources (BRM), Commonwealth Bank (CBA), James Hardie (JHX) and Platinum Asset Management (PTM).

The Dow Futures were down 2 at midday.

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

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