The market is up 7. The SFE Futures were up 27 this morning.

Wall St. closed up 29. The Dow was up 53 at best and down 53 at worst. Greek concerns plagued European markets overnight with the Greek market down 5% and Greek banks down up to 8%. Later comments from the ECB President saw sentiment recover — he said there was no information to suggest Greece would default. The Euro bounced. Initial jobless claims were worse than expected. Metals were mixed overnight, oil price increased slightly and Gold was unchanged. The Aussie dollar holding up at 92.87c.

In the news today…

  • A bidding war has emerged for Macarthur Coal (MCC) – New Hope Coal (NHC) is offering MCC shareholders 2.7 of their shares for every one MCC share by way of scheme of arrangement, valuing MCC at 1457c a share based on yesterday’s close. The all scrip bid offers rollover relief, a tax kicker compared to the Peabody bid. MCC up 8.77% to 1562c, NHC down 3c to 528c.
  • The Newcrest Mining (NCM) board has approved their Cadia East development with construction to begin immediately. NCM is offering Lihir Gold (LGL) shareholders one NCM share for every nine LGL shares they own plus 22.5c cash. LGL continue to reject the offer. LGL’s new CEO Graeme Hunt stands to pocket his full first year salary ($1.7m) and some LGL shares for what could be a few months worth of work if LGL end up being taken over. NCM down 11c to 3539c
  • Macmahon Holdings (MAH) says they will most likely win a $90m government contract and said they have had no information about the speculated bid by Leighton Holdings. MAH unchanged at 85c.
  • Rio Tinto (RIO) is negotiating contracts with their customers to supply iron ore priced on a quarterly basis. Head of iron ore says that if the industry does move to a quarterly system, it will be because of market forces and not any particular person or company. RIO down 14c to 7986c.
  • Gindalbie Metals (GBG) has signed a mandate letter and term sheet for a $US2.1bn loan facility that will help fund work at their Karara iron ore site. GBG up 2.65% to 135.5c today.
  • Indophil Resources (IRN) — Chinese group Zijin Mining Group has extended their offer to buy IRN to May 14 from April 16. IRN down 1.5c to 119.5c.
  • Nufarm’s tender process for the Sumitomo deal closes today at 7pm. Sumitomo agreed to buy a 20% stake in NUF at $14. Acceptances received under the offer stood at 43.23%. NUF last traded at 825c a share.
  • Stocks hitting a fresh yearly high today include: Centennial Coal (CEY), Cochlear (COH), Gindalbie Metals (GBG), Iluka Resources (ILU), Kathmandu (KMD) and Macarthur Coal (MCC).

The Dow Futures were down 1 at midday.

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