The market is up 4. SFE Futures were up 5 this morning.

US market up 149. The Dow was up 159 at best with jobs numbers below expectations (but last month’s revised up) and some major local economic data coming in better than expected and company earnings continued to beat analyst’s forecasts. US non-farm payrolls were up 157,000 in January, which was inline with the forecast. Data was revised over the past year and job gains in the two previous months were upgraded by 127,000. The unemployment rate was up to 7.9% from 7.8%. Perversely the weak number was well received as an indication the Fed is not about to lift its quantitative easing program. The ISM manufacturing index was up from 50.2 to 53.1 in January; Consumer sentiment was up from 71.3 to 73.8; Construction spending was up by 0.9% and in Chinese the official PMI manufacturing gauge was down from 50.4 to 50.6. Best sectors — Telecoms (+1.9%), Financials (+1.3%), Industrials (+1.2%) and Basic Materials (+1.2%). European markets mixed — UK FTSE up 1.12%, German Dax up 0.74%, France up 1.10%, Spain down 1.59%, Italy down 0.69%. Denmark had to nationalise its fourth largest bank. Metals up — Copper up 1.55%, Nickel up 1.62%, Aluminium up 1.63%, Lead up 0.78%. Over the week metals were up (+7.2% nickel). Spot iron ore up 70c to $153.20. Over the week iron ore was up $4.20. The VIX Volatility Index fell almost 10.0%, and ended near its 52-week low of 12.29. Over the week the US two-year bond yield was down 1.4bpts and 10 year yield was up 7bpts.

  • RBA Meeting and Rates Decision on Tuesday. There is now a 27% chance of a rate cut down from 37% last week.
  • Australian company reporting season gets going with COH, TCL, PRY, WEB, REA, FXL, TLS & NCM with results this week.
  • Macquarie Group — Operational brief on Tuesday.
  • NAB — Q1 Trading update on Thursday.
  • Qantas Airways (QAN) — Will be increasing the number of Asian destinations they fly to.  QAN is down 0.16% to 153.75c.
  • Fortescue (FMG) — Has agreed to stop work on the development of Iron Ore Holdings’ (IOH) Iron Valley deposit in WA. IOH is down 4.71% to 81c & FMG is up 1.88% to 488c.
  • Argo Investments (ARG) — HY report. Net profit of $86.28 million.
  • Next DC (NXT) — Appoints new Chief Technology Officer.
  • Sundance Resources (SDL) — Requests extension to Voluntary Suspension.
  • Sedgman (SDM) — Trading update — Expects to report profit in line with market consensus $12.3m. SDM is down 9.91% to 95.5c.
  • AWE — Upgraded to Buy from Neutral from Goldman Sachs.
  • Linc Energy (LNC) — Down another 11.40% after Fridays report.
  • Share Buybacks — CGF, GPG.