The market is up 22. SFE Futures were up 18 this morning.

Dow Jones up 4. The Dow was up 48 at best and down 64 at worst on mixed economic data — our futures are up 18 because our market had a late plunge on Friday afternoon to close down 38 points following a fall in the Dow Futures of over 100 points — an anticipated fall that didn’t happen in the end. US GDP came in at +2.0% year on year in the September quarter which was just above the expected 1.9% and the previous reading of 1.3%. The final reading for consumer sentiment for October also came in at 82.6 which was the highest reading in five years but down from the initial reading of 83.1 and below forecasts of 83.0. Markets had an eye on Hurricane Sandy, given the nickname “Frankenstorm”, which could potentially become the worst storm to hit the US northeast in 100 years. US exchanges at this stage say the storm will not impact normal trading hours. Over the week the Dow was down 1.8%, the S&P 500 down 1.5% and the Nasdaq was down 0.6%. Best sectors — telecoms (+0.5%), consumer services (+0.4%) and basic materials (+0.3%). Worst sectors — financials (-0.5%), health care (-0.5%) and consumer goods (-0.4%). European markets mixed — UK FTSE up 0.03%, German DAX up 0.44%, France up 0.69%, Spain down 0.05%, Italy up 0.36% and Greece down 0.76%. The Stoxx 600 index up 0.1% with consumer services (+0.6%), basic materials (+0.5%), utilities (+0.4%), energy (+0.4%), technology (-0.6%) and financials (-0.3%).

  • Bendigo and Adelaide Bank — Nothing much from the AGM. The managing director has said that low demand for credit made it difficult to grow revenue while maintaining profitability, which resulted in the FY year $1950 million profit. The economic outlook might be gloomy but the bank’s strategy will help it through. BEN is up 0.25% to 800c.
  • PanAust (PNA) — third quarter production report — Production for the nine months to September 30 was 44,616t copper, 87,148oz gold and 386,641oz silver. The company says they are on track to meet their FY production guidance of 64,000t copper, 135,000oz gold and 650,000oz silver. PNA recorded a year to date cash cost of $US1.09 per pound which was below the mid point of annual guidance. FY cash cost guidance maintained at between $US1.05 per pound — $US1.15 per pound. Group consolidated EBITDA for 2012 is expected to be approximately $US340 million. PNA is up 2.44% to 336c.
  • Elders (ELD) plans to sell their rural services business to return value to stakeholders. The rural services business makes up the majority of the company’s operations. ELD has been in talks with Ruralco about a potential merger. Elders also owns an automotive interiors business called Futuris which they have been looking to sell. ELD is down 5.88% to 24c.
  • AGM season continues this week, with Commonwealth Bank, Crown, Flight Centre, Consolidated Media Holdings, JB Hi-Fi, Tabcorp Holdings, Boral and Qantas all due to meet with shareholders.
  • Romney has crept ahead of Obama in the polls with the election on November 6.
  • Now 7% of Australian mortgagees are in negative equity.
  • There are 179,500 millionaires in Australia … 0.8% of the population. 

For a 5 day FREE TRIAL of the MARCUS TODAY newsletter 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 recommendations and ideas from Marcus and his Team. 
  • Our Portfolio recommendations which is actively managed on behalf of subscribers … no “set and forget”. Everything you need to effortlessly managed your own long term investment portfolio.         
  • Daily Technical Trading ideas and data, including daily scans of the ASX 300 for stocks changing trend.
  • Stock Database — all the numbers with comments on the top 300 stocks and more.
  • Educational section — Marcus’s Educational and Entertaining articles.

Subscribe to MARCUS TODAY.  We are sure you will enjoy and profit from what we offer … we have one of the highest re subscription rates in the financial newsletter industry.