The market is down 19. The SFE Futures were up 11 this morning.

Wall Street closed up 55 on Friday. Dow was up 62 at best and down 33 at worst and closed at its highest level since 2008. The S&P 500 had a 1.7% rise for the week — its seventh straight week of gains. Both Intel and JP Morgan released impressive earnings numbers. The oil price put on 14c to $91.54 and Gold fell another $26.50 to $1360.50. The Aussie dollar dropped to 99.11c from 99.75c. US markets are closed tonight for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.

Today’s main stories…

  • Djerriwarrh Investments (DJW) has posted a 68.9% rise in 1st H 20010/11 net profit to $25.55m thanks to higher dividends from its holdings. It will pay a fully franked interim dividend of 10c, unchanged from last year. DJW up 3c to 429c.
  • The independent expert has deemed AMP’s $14.6bn takeover of AXA Asia Pacific (AXA) as fair and reasonable. AMP up 1c to 519c and AXA up 1c to 640c.
  • Sonic Healthcare (SHL) has acquired two more Belgian Laboratories and one that is based in the US. All three acquisitions will be immediately earnings accretive and paid for from existing cash and debt facilities. SHL bottomed in July at 994c. Now 1206c up 21.3%. SHL up 2% to 1208c today.
  • Transfield Services (TSE) has completed the retail component of its entitlement offer and raised around $98m. TSE down 4c to 326c.
  • Nufarm (NUF) will fight a class action taken by shareholders alleging the company engaged in misleading conduct relating to its FY result for the 2009/10 calendar. NUF up 1c to 536c.
  • Eastern Star Gas (ESG) has confirmed the purchase of LNG Newcastle Project and expects to be completed by late February. ESG unchanged at 85.5c.
  • The inflation gauge increased 0.2% in December, after rising 0.4% in November and 0.3% in December. On an annual basis, the gauge is up by 3.8%.
  • Analysts suggest it could take months for all of QLD’s waterlogged mines to dry out completely and there are concerns that skilled tradespeople could leave QLD for jobs in WA.
  • Cooper Energy (COE) has suspended drilling in Tunisia due to political unrest. COE down 3c to 40c.
  • Stocks going ex-dividend today: Euroz (EZL) — 3c and Merchant House (MHI) — 0.5c.
  • Stocks hitting 52 week highs: Aurora Oil & Gas (AUT), Fleetwood (FWD), Monadelphous Group (MND), Orocobre (ORE) and Seven Group (SVW).

For a free 5 day obligation free trial of the MARCUS TODAY newsletter (and no we won’t ask for a credit card number) please Click Here – you will receive our renowned and popular Daily email about the stockmarket with all the stuff you need to know ahead of the trading day including overnight developments, news, comments, rumours, broker stuff and Ideas from Marcus and his Team. You will also be given a password to the MARCUS TODAY website including access to our Recommended Portfolio which is actively managed on behalf of subscribers.…no “set & forget”. Everything you need to effortlessly managed your own long term investment portfolio.

It includes an Income Portfolio. And for the traders we monitor short and medium term trades on top of the portfolio. Members also get access to our Database – all the numbers with comments on the ASX 200 stocks and more. Members also get access to our Educational section which includes an archive of Marcus’s Educational and Entertaining articles. We are sure you will enjoy and profit from what we offer. Thousands of subscribers enjoy and profit from our services every day. We have one of the highest re-subscription rates in the financial newsletter industry.

For your FREE TRIAL – Click here

To Subscribe to MARCUS TODAY – Click Here