The market is up 14. The SFE Futures were up 13 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 37 overnight. The S&P 500 was up 0.5% and the Nasdaq was down 0.2%. European markets were down. There will now be two EU summits with a solution anticipated after the 2nd meeting next Wednesday the 26th.  Commodity prices were down sharply. Copper lost 6.6% – its biggest 1 day fall in over 4 weeks. Gold was down for a fourth straight day, down $26 to $1621. The oil price down 0.81¢ to $85.30. The Aussie dollar was down at 102.33¢ from 102.29¢. US economic data was generally positive with the Philadelphia Fed’s business outlook and jobless claims coming in better than expected.

Main points:

  • Monadelphous Group (MND) has signed new contracts worth around $230 million for six separate projects with resources firms including Rio Tinto and Xstrata. MND up 29¢ to 1911¢.
  • Peabody Energy and ArcelorMittal are close to taking a majority share of Macarthur Coal (MCC) after more acceptances of its takeover offer took PEAMCoal’s ownership of Macarthur to 49%, with 50.01% needed for a change of control. PEAMCoal is offering $16 per Macarthur share, but said it will raise the offer to $16.25 if they take at least a 90% stake by November 11. MCC up 13¢ to 1621¢.
  • Woodside Petroleum (WPL) 3rd quarter revenue rose by 27% to $US1.313bn as higher commodity prices offset lower production. Production down 12% on the 3rd quarter – sales were down 10%. WPL up 15¢ to 3375¢.
  • Singapore’s competition regulator has approved Virgin Australia’s (VBA) proposed alliance with Singapore Airlines. VBA up 1.4% to 36¢.
  • Murchison Metals (MMX) is hoping to recover to a least some of the sunk investment on their Oakajee port project. They have given up on developing the iron-ore export project and will give up its ownership stake, but will demand the full price for its intellectual property. The 50-50 JV with Mitsubishi Corp has spent $218m on the project, with MMX’s share being $109m, which isn’t far below its market cap of $118.1m. MMX up 1.9%.
  • Toll Holdings (TOL) MD Paul Little will receive an additional $1.5m when he leaves the company at the year’s end. TOL unchanged at 465¢.

Bank sector results coming up – NAB next week

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