The market is up 27. The SFE Futures were up 28 this morning.

The Dow closed up 24 on Friday and was up 64 at best despite worse than expected GDP numbers and Spanish unemployment numbers at 24/.4%. The S&P 500 closed up 0.24% and the Nasdaq up 0.61%. US stocks recorded their best weekly gain in a month as corporate earnings came in better than expected. Metals were mostly up on the LME. The gold price was up $4.30 to $1664.80. Oil up 2¢ to $104.77. The Australian dollar is higher at 104.67¢. Consumer discretionary stocks were best, up 1.30%. Industrials and Materials were also strong. Consumer Staples, Energy and Tech stocks ended the session lower.

Main points:

  • National Australia Bank (NAB) will restructure their UK businesses after it contributed to a 15.6% fall in earnings. The UK businesses will be simplified to adapt to weak UK economic conditions. The restructure comes at a cost of $305m in the 2nd H12. NAB also announced an unaudited net profit for the 6 months to March 31 of $2.05bn down 16% after $709m of restructure costs and other writedowns which is inline with consensus. Results are due next week. Interim dividend will be lifted to 90c fully franked (ahead of the 88-89c expected.
  • Aurora Oil & Gas (AUT) has made an unconditional 45c share on-market takeover offer for Eureka Energy (EKA). The offer is at a 36.4% premium to EKA’s last trading price prior to the announcement, valuing the company at $107m.
  • Gloucester Coal (GCL) says their coal production has more than tripled year on year in the 3rd Q, with almost 1.28m metric tons produced compared with 342,000 the previous year. GCL is currently being acquired by Yanzhou Coal Mining.
  • Lynas Corp (LYC) has received a new wave of environmental protests at their Malaysian plant as the company plans to build a refinery. Thousands of people protested in Kuala Lumpur calling for reform asking the government to block LYC from starting their rare earths processing plant. LYC has launched defamation proceedings against the ‘Save Malaysia Stop Lynas’ protest group. Construction of their processing plant is 98% complete and remains on track to deliver first feed in the 2nd Q this year. Tabcorp Holdings (TAH) have refinanced $450m worth of debt due to mature in fiscal 2013. The company raised US$220m by issuing notes in the US which added to a recent $250m offer. Maturity has been extended till June 2015.
  • Kagara (KZL) has appointed voluntary administrators to restructure and independently investigate the affairs of the company. KZL last traded at 12c. It had a market cap of $95m.
  • Spotless Group (SPT) is expected to accept a 271c takeover offer from private equity group Pacific Equity Partners despite saying they would not accept anything less than 280c. SPT is valued at $720m.
  • Woodside Petroleum (WPL) has started production from their Pluto LNG Project near Karratha in WA. They will be load their first cargo aboard the Woodside Donaldson LNG tanker.

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