The market is up 13. SFE Futures were up 1 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 2 — the Dow was down 108 at worst but had a late rally on the back of a rise in the Apple share price late in the session. Apple was up 4.0% — they are expected to unveil a smaller version of the iPad tomorrow in the US. Before that the market had fallen all session as third quarter results continued to disappoint. Caterpillar slashed their 2012 forecast and revenue forecasts missed expectations. Mining heavyweight Freeport-McMoRan was down 2.4% after their 3Q profit missed estimates and they announced a huge cut in revenue and output. Of the 123 S&P 500 companies that have reported 61% have missed on revenue forecasts. Usually about 75% beat estimates. Tech stocks were the best performers in the lead up to their 3Q earnings, Yahoo! was up 4% in after hours trade on late results and the NASDAQ finished up 0.26%.

  • Metals thumped — copper down 3.28%, nickel down 4.23%, aluminium down 2.90% and zinc was down 3.53%. Japanese exports to China fell by 14.1% in September from the 12 month prior, shipments to the EU fell by 21.1%. The USD vs YEN hit a 3 month high.
  • AGL Energy (AGK) — AGM — has forecast annual profit to rise by as much as a third due to a revenue boost from the Loy Yang coal fired power station purchased in Victoria. AGL now expects underlying net profit to be between $590m-$640m up from $482m last year. AGK is down 2.47% to 1459c.
  • OZ Minerals (OZL) — 3Q production numbers OK — The company is on track to meeting annual guidance for copper and gold output.
  • Pacific Brands (PBG) — AGM — sales have been down this year and the company doesn’t expect significant improvement any time soon. OZL is up 2.65% to 851c.
  • Insurance Australia Group (IAG) — AGM — is on track to achieving their FY financial forecasts after their first quarter performance. The company said they will deliver on FY guidance of an improved insurance margin of 11%-13% and gross written premium growth of 9%-11%. IAG is up 1.76% to 462c.
  • Discovery Metals (DML) — Chinese private-equity firm Cathay Fortune Corp will bypass DML’s board with a hostile takeover bid that values the company at $830 million. The Chinese firm said they will bid 170c a share direct to shareholders after being refused the opportunity to conduct due diligence. DML is up 5.5% to 174c.
  • Wotif.com (WTF) — AGM — expects their first H profit to be flat but demand for overseas travel remains strong thanks to the high Australian dollar. The first quarter performance for 2012/13 was tracking in line with last year. WTF is up 14% to 480c.
  • Mirabela Nickel (MBN) — Third quarter production — record production for the quarter of 5,441 tonnes of nickel in concentrate up 27% from 4,276 tonnes. MBN is up 5.32% to 49.5c.
  • SMS Management & Technology Limited (SMX) — AGM — the company has reported a weak first Q13 trading performance where contracts signed fell 21% to $81 million. The company also expects first H13 profit of $12.5 million – $14 million which is well below a consensus estimate of $33.2 million. SMX is down 15.94% to 543c.

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