The market is having yet another good day — up 54. The SFE Futures were up 59 this morning.

Wall Street closed up 149 overnight. The Dow was up 161 at best and down 6 at worst. US stocks have had their best three days in 10 weeks. Metals were mixed, the Oil price put on a healthy $4.14 to $80.17 and Gold a big $23.20 to $1243.50. Some positive developments in Europe the catalyst (see below). The Aussie dollar fell to 89.43c from 89.48c yesterday morning.

Australia’s unemployment rate has come in at a seasonably adjusted 5.1% in April, economists on average expected 5.3%. The March figure was revised up to 5.4%. Total employment rose by 33,700 to a seasonally adjusted 11.02m during the month.

In other news today…

  • The bank sector hasn’t really been disturbed by headlines of a $400m class action against 11 banks including the majors for the overcharging of fees. All of the majors are in positive territory except for Commonwealth Bank (CBA) which released their 3rd Trading Update yesterday. The response this morning in the broker research has been OK’ish.
  • Paladin Energy (PDN) reported a $US7m 3Q loss, up from a $US6.8m loss last year. Revenue grew to $US53.3m from $US25m. PDN up 9c to 411c.
  • St Barbara Limited (SBM) announced a $25m performance bond facility to free up $22m in cash. SBM was up 14% yesterday. It is  down 0.5c to 30.5c.
  • Goodman Fielder (GFF) has told analysts at a briefing that their profit range of $180m-$206m should be adjusted downward for one-off costs. They have debt funding headroom of around $400m and available debt facilities of $1.4bn. GFF unchanged at 144c.
  • Talk of Transurban’s major shareholders, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan selling their 40% stake in the company after TCL rejected their improved offer of 575c a share yesterday. TCL down 3.1% to 474c
  • Infigen Energy (IFN) closed up 5% after CEO Miles George said he will consider selling their US assets again once market conditions improve.
  • PaperlinX (PPX) has finalized their refinancing, made up of syndicated bank debt and US Private Placement notes. PPX up 4% to 82c
  • Optus announced an additional 254,000 new mobile users in Q1 despite Telstra cutting prices on a number of products in an attempt to increase customer numbers. TLS down 7c to 296c yesterday but up 3c to 299c.
  • Stock hitting fresh 52 week highs include: Lihir Gold (LGL) and Andean Resources (AND).

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