Dow Jones was up 81. The Dow was up 83 at best on Friday and was up 130 points for the week (0.99%). The Dow closed near its highs of the session as non-farm payrolls came in at 146.000 which was better than the consensus forecast of 93,000 and the US unemployment rate fell to 7.7% from 7.9%. The Dow made its lows early in the session on the back of the Michigan consumer sentiment index coming in at 74.5 which was under the forecast of 82.4; the implication is that US consumers are concerned about economic growth and the impending fiscal cliff. Financial stocks were the best performers last week after Citigroup announced that they were cutting 11,000 jobs on Wednesday, Citigroup finished up 8.88% for the week. Chinese industrial production was announced at the weekend along with PPI, CPI and Retail sales. Industrial production was up 10.1% against forecasts of 9.8%. It was a small improvement on the previous month’s 9.6% and continues to feed the concept of a slowdown in the Chinese economic slowdown. Metals mixed — Copper up 0.42%, Nickel up 0.15%, Aluminium down 0.14% and Zinc was up 0.21%. Spot iron ore up $2.60 to $121.00. Spot iron ore was up $5.40 last week.

European markets mixed – UK FTSE up 0.22%, German DAX down 0.22%, France up 0.11%, Spain down 0.79%, Italy down 0.86% and Greece was up 1.09%. The Bundesbank has slashed its 2013 German GDP growth forecast to just 0.4%, from its last prediction of 1.6% issued in June. It now expects German economic growth of just 0.7% in 2012.

  • Southern Cross Media (SXL) — Is expected to release a statement in response to global condemnation of the prank call by radio station 2DayFM. Chairman Max Moore-Wilton and the board held a crisis meeting over the weekend to discuss a stinging letter from the London hospital where British nurse Jacintha Saldanha worked before she died late last week. Telstra has pulled their advertising from the station. SXL is down 4.98%.
  • Australand (ALZ) – Has received an unsolicited approach from GPT Group (GPT) to acquire their Investment Property Portfolio and Commercial and Industrial business. The proposal is incomplete, highly conditional and is subject to a number of factors including undertaking due diligence. The board has recommended shareholders take no action at this time. ALZ is up 5.3%. 
  • Ten Network Holdings (TEN) – Shares have come out of trading halt as the company completes their $230m capital raising at 20c. TEN is down 5.37%.
  • The number of home loans approved in October rose 0.1% to 46,477, a weak number. That was from an upwardly revised 46,425 in September. Economists had expected housing finance commitments to rise 3% in October.
  • Iron ore stocks are up – AGO + 5.38%, FMG +5.01%, ARI +3.75%.

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 & 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.