The market is up 43. SFE Futures were up 13 this morning.

Dow Jones was up 40. The Dow was up 42 at best and down 27 at worst with jobless claims a bit better than expected and no major news on US fiscal cliff negotiations. The Dow jumped 34 in the last 30 minutes of the session ahead of their Nonfarm Payroll numbers tonight. Apple bounced 1.6% after its 6.4% fall yesterday. The ECB left rates unchanged but discussed cutting them and they downgraded eurozone GDP numbers for 2013 to -0.3% from the previous forecast of +0.5%. Fiscal cliff talks continued, with both sides moving slightly closer with hints at a compromise. President Obama said there could be a quick deal to avert the fiscal cliff if Republican leaders agree to raise taxes for those making more than $250k a year. Best sectors — Technology (+0.9%) and Consumer Services (+0.4%). Worst sectors — Utilities (-0.2%) and Telecoms (-0.1%). Chinese industrial production numbers are out this weekend (along with CPI, PPI and retail sales) and the US jobs numbers are tonight. Suggestions in The Australian Financial Review (denied by Gillard this morning) that the government are going to dump their budget surplus forecast.

  • The trade deficit came in at $2.088 billion in October compared with a deficit of $1.420 billion in September. Economists were forecasting a deficit of $2.2 billion in October.
  • Myer AGM — Not a lot of new information, a bit of a repeat of the full year results presentation and a reiteration of their five-point plan which seems to be gaining traction with margins up 1.05% in the last year and with sales in the last quarter up 1% against full year sales down 1.3%. Generally upbeat but no new earnings guidance and they retain the “challenging outlook” commentary. MYR is up 1.15% to 219.5c.
  • The AIG/HIA Performance of Construction Index rose 1.2 points to 37.0 in November. A reading below 50 indicates the sector is declining. The survey also showed a sharp decline in new orders, down 2.5 points to 34.3, which suggests construction will remain weak over the coming months.
  • Gina Rinehart admits Ten Network can do more to cut costs and lift ratings. She has lost an estimated $139 million on her investment and will decide today whether she will buy more shares in TEN’s $230 million capital raising. TEN is in trading halt until Monday. The theoretical ex-rights price is 26.9c but the share price is likely to get hit harder than that amidst suggestions that “insiders” are looking to privatise the company.
  • Bluescope Steel (BSL) is ex a one for six share consolidation today. Temporarily trading on the code BSLDA, the share price has basically gone up 6x from 56c to 340c and the number of shares has gone down to a sixth of what it was.
  • The ASX S&P index changes have been announced. They will take place on December 21. Into the ASX 100 go ABC, CRZ and FLT. Out go BLY, PDN, SWM. IIN, MAD and MMS come into the ASX 200 and APN, IAU, LNC and MAH go out.

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