The market is up 18. The SFE Futures were up 22 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 57 on Friday. It closed above 11,000 for the first time since May 3. Jobs numbers were worse than expected encouraging speculation that the Fed will announce another round of quantitative easing at the next FOMC meeting on Nov 2. The gold price gained $10.30 to $1345.30 and the oil price was up 99c to $82.66 for its 3rd straight weekly gain. The Aussie dollar rose to 98.96c. The US$ fell 0.1%. Metals all up.

Today’s main points…

  • Big scale back on Woolworths buy back. Woolworths has completed their $704m off-market buyback but investors were scaled back by a disappointing 88.2% leaving a lot of people wondering why they bothered. The final buy-back price was 2562c with 27.5m shares were bought back at a 14% discount or 2.2% of WOW’s issued capital. WOW down 2.12%. The stock is up 10.2% since the buyback was announced and we are seeing profit takers now they know how many shares they hold.
  • Fortescue Metals (FMG) has refinanced a series of senior notes by signing a new $2.04bn bank facility with JP Morgan and RBS that will contribute to its current expansion plans. The new facility matures in October 2015 and has an interest rate of 7.5% and is linked to Libor. FMG up 5.34%. It is up 78% since May.
  • Tabcorp Holdings (TAH) has struck an in-principal agreement to provide funding of $150m to facilitate the merger between Sydney Turf Club and the Australian Jockey Club, as well as to develop Randwick racecourse. TAH up 0.99%.
  • BlueScope Steel (BSL) said they are experiencing a number of headwinds in the 1st Q thanks to the strong $A and lower demand. In the three months to Aug 30, there was “significant spread contraction”, where export steel prices fell by more than $US100 per metric ton while raw material costs increased. BSL unchanged at 224c.
  • Perth based Peak Oil and Gas plans to launch their $55m IPO. They have secured $10m in pre-IPO financing in late August and plans to offer 157m shares at a price of 35c. The offer opens Oct. 15, with an expected closing date of Nov. 12. Trading is expected to begin Dec. 2 on the ASX.
  • Potash Corp is doing everything possible to ensure it doesn’t get taken over by BHP Billiton. The AFR says the Canadian company has asked its advisors to work on a potential break-up plan and is also trying to get the Ontario pension fund in its corner along with Temasek and Teck Resources.
  • QR National has released its prospectus. There’s a lot of media coverage — it’s the biggest IPO since Telstra.

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