The market is up 4. The SFE Futures were down 30 this morning.

Wall St fell for the seventh straight session on Friday — down 46 — and hit fresh 2010 lows on the back of disappointing economic figures. Non farm payrolls fell by 125,000 in June, more than the 100,000 fall that economists expected. Oil fell for the 5th straight day – down 81c to $72.14, Gold put on $1 to $1207.70 and the Aussie dollar fell to 84.13 from 84.68c yesterday morning.

US Markets are closed tonight for Independence Day Holiday

In other news today…

  • Centennial Coal (CEY) receives 620c a share takeover offer — Centennial is recommending shareholders accept the all cash 620c a share takeover offer from Thailand based Banpu Public Company. The offer represents a 40% premium to CEY’s last closing price of 442c. CEY up 33% to 588c.
  • CSR Ltd has accepted Wilmar International’s (owned by Bright Food Group) official and formal cash takeover offer of $1.75bn for their sugar and renewable energy division, Sucrogen. CSR up 2.95% to 174.5c.
  • Heemskirk Consolidated (HSK) has launched a 42c a share takeover offer fro North QLD Metals (NQM), implying a 56% premium. NQM has recommended the bid. HSK unchanged at 35c, NQM up 20% to 32.5c.
  • Northern Iron (NFE) announced a marketing and financial agreement with OM Holdings (OMH). OMH will provide a $US10m loan facility to Sydvaranger. NFE up 1% to 139.5c and OMH is unchanged at 151c.
  • Aquila Resources (AQA) says their WA iron ore project should be capable of producing 30m metric tons of ore per year for top-line profits of $1.8bn annually. Their definitive feasibility study indicated production costs of $19.48/ton before royalty rates, equivalent to EBITFA of $1.8bn. AQA up 2.24% to 776c.
  • Sandfire Resources (SFR) MD Karl Simich says Oz Minerals got the “bargain of the century” when they bought a 19% stake in his company on Friday. They spent $100m buying 25.8m shares at 385c a share. SFR is up 3,646.7% since January 1 2009 and is up another 7.45% today to 346c.
  • Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has closed 40 brokerages firms blaming them for setting artificial rates for the Venezuelan currency after a 27% drop in the Bolivar since May 18th.  He says the country doesn’t need these companies who are exploiting loopholes to become rich. “There’s no economic reason for the weakening of the Bolívar. It’s a huge fraud against the republic”. One way to regulate financial institutions.
  • Stocks hitting fresh 52 week lows include: AWE Ltd (AWE), Carrick Gold (CRK), Magma Metals (MMW), Sims Metal Management (SGM) and Transfield Services (TSE).

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