The market is up 101. The SFE Futures were up 37 this morning.

Wall St. finished down 154 on Friday in a half session. The Dow was down 12 at best and down 233 at worst.  The United Arab Emirates’ central bank attempted to settle markets on the weekend, saying that it stood behind the country’s local and foreign banks. Quite liked the comment that the Dubai issue was “Sandstorm in a tea cup”. The main drive in our market today is the recovery in the banks which led the 130 point fall in the market on Friday. Oil and Gold fell and the Aussie dollar crept up to 91.66c.

In the news today…

  • OZ Minerals (OZL) has released its Business Strategy — It will have an M&A focus going forward and has teamed up with IMX Resources (IXR) to explore and develop copper-gold projects in South Australia. OZL will take up 26.15m IMX shares at 38.5c, a 25% premium to the 30 day moving average, as part of the deal. OZL has $1bn cash on its balance sheet and $US105m of debt. It has also released an updated mineral resource for Prominent Hill, it contained copper metal rising 2.6% to 2.5m tons and contained gold falling 19.2% to 3.4m ounces. OZL up 4.5c to 122.5c.
  • GUD Holdings is likely to extend its $272m takeover offer for Breville Group (BRG) today as it waits for approval from the ACCC. BRG shareholders have been told to REJECT GUD’s offer with an independent expert’s report valuing the company between 273c and 290c after incorporating 50% of the synergies expected from combining businesses with GUD. GUD up 2c to 843c.
  • Street Talk was on the money, Energy Developments (ENE) announces this morning that it expects to receive an improved 275c a share takeover offer ($431m) from Pacific Equity Partners. ENE shares are in a trading halt and last traded at 241c.
  • Commonwealth Bank (CBA) confirms it does not expect to incur a material loss through its exposure to Dubai World. CBA rebounds 3.3% to 5228c.
  • Goodman Group (GMG) — AGM — Expects an operating profit of $310m and declares a dividend in December. It also predicts writedowns of around 5% of total assets. GMG up 2.5% to 60c.
  • Telstra (TLS) CEO David Thodey announces a number of organizational changes that he says will help it grow its key markets and provide better customer service. TLS up 3c to 342c.
  • Aquarius (AQP) will lift its convertible bond offering to $US300m. AQP down 6c to 619c.
  • Connect East (CEU) expects to pay the builders of its Eastlink motorway $55m for its early completion after reaching an out of court settlement. CEU up 1.5c to 41.5c.
  • Australian new home sales fell 6% in October, its second consecutive monthly fall.
  • Housing sector credit increased 0.7% in October thanks to growth in lending to owner occupiers and investors. Business credit fell 1.3% in October to be down by 6.8%.
  • Australian company gross operating profits fell 2.1% to a seasonally adjusted $53.11bn in the 3Q of 2009. Economists were expecting a flat result.
  • The inflation gauge increased by 0.3% in October and is up 2.1% in seasonably adjusted terms, within the RBA’s 2-3% inflation target band.

The Dow Futures are down 119 at midday.

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

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