The market is up 40. The SFE Futures were up 44 this morning.

Wall St. closed up 25 overnight. Dow up 54 at best and down 11 at worst. S&P 500 above 1200 at 1207. Goldman Sachs fell 2.02% despite impressing with their 1st Q earnings. Apple up 5.6% in after hour’s trade on late results. Metals were up on the LME, oil price up 89c to $84 and Gold up $3 to $1139. The Aussie dollar up to 93.21c versus 92.20c yesterday morning.

In the news today…

  • ASX 200 at 4926 last night … still failing to get through 5000 which may now form a ceiling rather than a springboard. 65 stocks in the ASX 300 have moved from short term uptrend to downtrend in the last 3 days giving you a bit of a clue that the trend is turning down. The market is up 500 points in two months.
  • BHP Billiton have released their 3rd Q production numbers this morning. The numbers appear to be in line with expectations. But dominating the headlines is that fact that they have uncovered possible violations of anti-corruption laws by its employees following a request for information from the US SEC. BHP up 2c to 4283c.
  • Wesfarmers (WES) announced late last night that they are merging their chemicals and fertilisers division with their energy unit. The new energy unit will be called Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy & Fertilisers division Talk is that they have held talks with Incitec Pivot to sell them CSBP Ltd, their chemicals and fertilizer division. WES down 21c to 3126c. Has just gone into short term downtrend on the daily chart.
  • National Australia Bank (NAB) is considering selling part of their recently acquired Aviva business in order to satisfy the ACCC’s concerns about  their bid for AXA Asia Pacific (AXA).The divisions they could sell may include the Navigator superannuation and investment platform. NAB down 16c to 2867c.
  • Wotif.com down 10.3% yesterday after releasing a profit update … the market interpreted it as a profit downgrade. They tell us net profit will come in at between $52 and $56m … up 28%, analysts were expecting $56m. WTF up 8c to 690c.
  • Macquarie Atlas Roads (MQA) announced revenues from their portfolio of toll roads increased 3.8% in the 1st Q of 2010. MQA unchanged at 100c.
  • OneSteel (OST) expects a four week delay before restarting their Whyalla blast furnace. OST down 5c to 391c.
  • Companies hitting fresh yearly highs: Andean Resources (AND), Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Centennial Coal (CEY), Giralia Resources (GIR) and Medusa Mining (MML).

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