The market is up 19. The SFE Futures were up 8 this morning.

Wall St. closed up 4 overnight. The Dow was up 75 at best and down 66 at worst. The S&P 500 fell and closed below its 200 day moving average. Market rallied on the FOMC statement which left rates unchanged (at zero to 0.25%) and reiterated the need to keep interest rates exceptionally low for an extended period of time. New Home sales numbers were disappointing. Metals were mostly down overnight, the oil price fell $1.35 to $76.50 and Gold fell $6 to $1234.80.and the Aussie dollar went up — now at 8740c from 8713c.

JULIA GILLARD is the new Prime Minister. Although we don’t know yet the hope is that Gillard will tackle the Resources Super Profits Tax as one element of Rudd and the Labor Party’s unpopularity running into the election. Resources have certainly rallied on the hope that it may be abandoned and the A$ has rallied with them. Sportsbet.com.au says the Coalition is now the favourite to win the next Federal election. You can get odds of $1.80 for the Coalition and $1.90 for the Labor party.

In other news today…

  • Riversdale Mining (RIV) has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Wuhan Iron and Steel Corp (WISCO) and a logistics partnership agreement with the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) for the development of the Zambeze Coal project in Mozambique. RIV up 5% to 1109c.
  • Macquarie Group (MQG) down 4% to 4094c after telling a UBS conference that market conditions are increasingly uncertain. A mild profit warning. The stock has triggered a short term sell signal on the charts this morning.
  • Goodman Fielder (GFF) expects a FY net profit of between $158m-$165m. They say the NZ tax changes will have a positive impact on net profit from FY12. Business continues to trade solidly. They will record a non-cash writedown of around $13m on their deferred tax assets due to the removal of building depreciation in NZ. GFF up 2c to 139.5c.
  • Beach Petroleum (BPT) announced they will begin exploring for oil in Tanzania after signing an agreement with the government of the United Republic of Tanzania for a 100% interest in the Lake Tanganyika South concession. BPT last traded at 76c.
  • Challenger Financial Services Group (CGF) up 5% to 346c after their CFO presented at the UBS Financial Services Conference.
  • Around 73 property trusts go ex-distribution today.
  • Stocks hitting fresh 52 week lows include: AWE Ltd (AWE), Elders (ELD) and Toro Energy (TOE).

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