The market is up 4. The SFE Futures were up 20 this morning.

Wall Street closed up 3. Highest volume in 2 weeks. The Dow was up 37 at best and down 38 at worst. The NASDAQ hit a new 52 week high. Financials did well again after the European Commission President Romano Prodi said the worst of Greece’s budget crisis is over. Oil up 89c to $81.38, Gold down $14 to $1108 and the Aussie dollar increased to 91.54c from 91.40c.

In the news today…

  • MYER Ltd (MYR) — Interim Result better than expected — Net profit (excluding IPO costs) came in at $115m, up 38% and ahead of the $111.3m analysts expected. They declared a 10.5c dividend and reiterated FY total sales growth guidance. Hasn’t inspired the share price — up 2c to 349c.
  • Equinox Minerals (EQN) announced an Full year profit of $195.7m and cash reserves of $109.1m. Price up 4c to 381c.
  • Macmahon (MAH) out of a trading halt and up 4.6% to 78c after announcing they have secured tunneling work with Leighton Asia to deliver a major new underground rail contract in Hong Kong. They estimate the job to be valued at $115m.
  • Fortescue Metals (FMG) – Two of their biggest long term US backers, New York based hedge funds Harbinger Capital and Leucadia Capital, have both sold around 30m shares each ($130m worth). FMG say they have received no explanation. FMG up 2.5% to 495c.
  • Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services says Nufarm’s (NUF) “BBb” long term corporate credit rating remains on CreditWatch following their earnings update.  NUF up 4c to 842c.
  • Cooper Energy (COE) down 0.5c to 50.5c – they say the flooding in Cooper Basin is likely to have an impact on operations.
  • Telstra (TLS) up 7c to 306c (up 8c yesterday) on talk the opposition have enough support to kill off the governments plans to split the company in two.
  • AGL Energy (AGK) say they could join Royal Dutch Shell in a QLD LNG project if the acquisition of Arrow goes ahead. AGK down 8c to 1491c.
  • Sigma Pharmaceuticals (SIP) remains in a trading halt. Last traded at 90c. They expect to make an announcement concerning revised earnings guidance for the year. That was on March 1st.
  • Australia’s unemployment rate was hits a seasonably adjusted 5.3% in February, slightly up on the 5.2% in January.
  • Stocks hitting fresh yearly highs include GWA International (GWT), Macmahon Holdings (MAH), REA Group (REA), Reece Australia (REH) and Ramsay HealthCare (RHC).

the Dow Futures are down 6 at midday.

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