The market is up 42. The SFE Futures were up 35 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 76 overnight and was up 96 at best and down 33 at worst. All sectors except financials were higher. Euro zone finance ministers have given Greece two weeks to pass austerity measures in order to receive the next tranche of bailout loans. The oil price was up 25c to $93.26. The gold price was up $2.90 to $1552 — its fifth straight day higher. The Aussie dollar fell to 105.84c from 106.01.

In the news today…

  • RBA Minutes released — RBA signaled that an interest rate rise will “be necessary at some point”, but said that “data over the past month had not added any urgency to the need for an adjustment of policy”. No obvious impact on the market.
  • Foster’s Group (FGL) has rejected a $9.51 billion all-cash takeover offer from SABMiller, saying the bid undervalues the company. SABMiller made an unsolicited and conditional proposal of $4.90 a share in cash, an 8.9% premium to Monday’s close. We await developments — an upped bid or a counterbid perhaps. FGL up 12.6% to 510c.
  • Caltex (CTX) has rebounded today after falling 7% yesterday on a profit downgrade. Macquarie has assigned an Outperform rating to the stock. CTX up 30c to 1090c.
  • Operations at the Escondida copper mine in Chile, controlled by BHP Billiton (BHP), are back to normal after shutting down Saturday due to bad weather. BHP up 53c to 4189c.
  • Mincor Resources (MCR) has announced that they will undertake an on market buy back of up 10% of the Company’s shares. MCR up 5.5%.
  • Incitec Pivot (IPL) says it is still interested in buying Burrup Fertilisers despite Wesfarmers (WES) expanding its ammonia nitrate facility near Perth which will eat into the state’s demand for nitrate. IPL up 1.9% to 375c.
  • ASX Limited (ASX) — Some mild talk of other global stock exchanges being interested in setting up operation in Australia in competition with the ASX although most are distracted by “global consolidation” of their own. ASX down 25c to 2951c.
  • Northern Energy Corporation (NEC) CEO, Keith Barker, has resigned from the position and a replacement being sought. NEC unchanged at 150c.
  • ABARE forecasts that commodity export earnings will reach a record $256 billion in FY2011, up 18% on FY10. Higher export prices and shipments for metallurgical coal are the main reason for the rise in earnings, with thermal coal, gold and alumina also contributing.

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