The market is up 51. The SFE Futures were down 11 this morning.

Wall Street closed down 40. The Dow was up 125 at best and down 71 at worst. It fell in the last hour. Energy stocks underperformed once again with BP closing at its lowest point since 1996 — down 15.8%. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made an upbeat statement about the economy. The Oil price closed up $2.39 to $74.38, Gold fell $15.70 to $1229 and the Aussie went up slightly to 82.74c from 82.72c.

In other news today…

  • Australia’s unemployment rate fell to a lower-than-expected seasonally adjusted 5.2% in May from 5.4% in April. The number of people employed increased by 26,900.
  • Caltex Australia (CTX) says a major turnaround and inspection maintenance procedure at their Lytton refinery in QLD is almost complete and that a full shutdown of the finery has ended. CTX up 6% to 1089c.
  • Transurban (TCL) completes their Entitlement Offer. Retail bookbuild price is under 460c a share and underwriters will take up 27.8m shares. TCL up 1c to 446c.
  • Kingsgate Consolidated (KCN) announced their Chatree North gold processing plant will pay reduced taxes under the Thai government scheme. KCN up 7.5% to 935c.
  • Australian Worldwide Exploration (AWE) up 4% to 211c on positive drilling results.
  • Rio Tinto (RIO) and its largest shareholder Chinalco are said to be working on a deal that could see them merge their adjacent Weipa and Aurukun operations or invest in the $US1.8b Yarwun 2 refinery. RIO up 2% to 6770c.
  • Moby Oil & Gas (MOG) has entered into an agreement with North West Shelf Exploration, a subsidiary of MEO Australia (MEO). MEO up 1.5c to 29.5c and MOG down 0.5c to 9.5c.
  • Aspen Group (APZ) in a trading halt. Last traded at 46c.
  • HSBC economist says the China property bubble could burst and that the Aussie dollar could drop below 70c.
  • Computershare (CPU) up 4.3% to 1154c on no announcement. It is considered a possible takevoer target for ASX Ltd (ASX).
  • The Foreign Investment Review Board has approved US Magellan Petroleum’s acquisition of 40% of Santos’ (STO) Evans Shoal natural gas field. STO up 2.3% to 1308c
  • Stocks hitting fresh 52 week highs include: Avoca Resources (AVO), Esservglobal Ltd (ESV) and Growthpoint Property (GOZ). Stocks hitting fresh yearly lows include: Carrick Gold (CRK) and Geodynamics (GDY).

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