The market is up 26. The SFE Futures were up 21 this morning.

Wall St. closed up 13 overnight. The Dow was up 33 at best and down 58 at worst. The S&P 500 finished up at 1197 with 1200 still representing resistance. The index is up 77% from the low in March last year. Metals struggled on the LME overnight, Oil fell 53c to $83.73 and Gold also dropped $8 to $1153. JP Morgan Chase report their results in the US tonight. The Aussie dollar holds at 92.87c from 92.64c.

In the news today…

  • The ASX 200 “Failed at 5000” yesterday. 5,000 now representing more significant resistance having failed twice this year at that level. We’ll get close today (497 now). Financials are helping the cause today — the sector is up 0.8%. The Bank results season kicks off tomorrow.
  • Telstra up 3% to 319c yesterday after Communications Minister Stephen Conroy talked about the NBN (National Broadband network) being built faster and cheaper with Telstra on board and said that the Telstra directors were representing the interests of shareholders “famously” in negotiations. Rumours of a TLS/NBN deal denied by TLS this morning. TLS down 2c today to 318c.
  • Macquarie Group (MQG) announced they will acquire a portfolio of 53 aircraft operating leases from an AIG subsidiary for $1.97bn. MQG up 45c to 5045c.
  • Transurban Group (TCL) announced their underlying toll road revenues increased by 5.2% in the past year to $196.3m in the March Q. TCL up 3c to 515c.
  • DMC Mining (DMM) announced they have received a second takeover offer, one that trumps Cape Lambert’s (CFE) offer. DMM up 5c to 46c.
  • MEO Australia (MEO) up 20% today on the announcement of a long waited deal with Petrobras. Up 7c to 43.5c. See below.
  • Industrea (IDL) has signed a $2.7m contract through their subsidiary with a Chinese customer. IDL unchanged at 40c.
  • West Australian Newspapers (WAN) outperformed yesterday — up 2.1% — after the WA government lifted their growth forecast for the second time in 6 months. They now forecast growth of 3.75% in 2010 and 4.5% in 2011. All a reflection of the resources sector. WAN up another 5c today to 833c.
  • Karoon Gas up 4.8% to 780c – they are on the verge of providing important drilling results tomorrow on the progress of their Kronos-1 exploration well. Merrills says they could sink to 450c or fly to $12.
  • Companies hitting fresh yearly highs: AGL Energy (AGK), ARB Corp (ARP), Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Coca-Cola (CCL), Grange Resources (GRR) and News Corp (NWS).

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