The market is up 15. SFE Futures were up 18 this morning.

Dow Jones was up 107. The Dow was down 113 at worst and up 111 at best. US markets managed to post gains for the first time this week. It was a volatile session with markets hearing further comments on their fiscal restructure negotiations that are due to be implemented at the start of 2013. US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said that said he was optimistic a deal could be struck to resolve the issue and later, President Barack Obama said from the White House that he was hopeful the White House and Congress could resolve the fiscal cliff before Christmas. “The goal is an agreement that gets our long term deficit under control in a way that is fair and balanced,” said Obama. He urged the public to pressure their Congressional representatives to seek a solution to the economic troubles. US New Home Sales came in under the forecast. Gold, Oil and US bond yields down.

New Home Sales were 368,000 for October which was under the forecast of 390,000 and just under the previous reading of 369,000.

Best sectors – Consumer Services (+1.3%), Energy (+1.0%, despite lower crude prices) and Industrials (+0.8%). The US 2 year bond yield down 1bpt to 0.262% and the US 10 year bond yield down 2bpts to 1.615%.

European markets mixed – UK FTSE up 0.06%, German DAX up 0.15%, France up 0.37%, Spain down 0.33%, Italy down 0.17% and Greece down 2.87%. The Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.1% with Consumer Services (+0.4%) and Consumer Goods (+0.4%), Utilities (-0.3%) and Financials (-0.2%) segments.

Rio Tinto (RIO) – Cost cutting – Has announced they will cut $US2bn from their spending plans over the coming year and is targeting more than $US5bn in cost savings by the end of 2014 due to continued volatility in the global economy. RIO is up 0.67% to 5708c.

BHP Billiton (BHP) – AGM – Chairman Jac Nasser says he does not expect any major increase in the iron ore price any time soon. China’s growth rate would not continue at the current level but that was expected. BHP is up 0.25% to 3408.5c.

Jumbo Interactive (JIN) – Is up 14% after they announced plans to expand into the US lottery market with the launch of a joint venture with Retail Gaming Solutions a New York based company specialising in physical lottery merchandising and affinity programs.

Starpharma Holdings (SPL) – Is down 35% after the company announced the resignation of Director Mr Ross Dobinson. As a founding director of the company he had a significant role in the establishment and early development of the company.

NRW Holdings (NWH) – Down 9% after brokers cut their target prices after AGM yesterday.

Orocobre (ORE) – Down 10.48% after the risk of a debt default by the Government of Argentina has risen.

Grange Resources (GRR) – Is planning to cut staff and expenditure on their majority owned Southdown iron ore project in WA due to high costs and difficult financial markets. GRR is up 2.22% to 23c.

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