The market is up 52. Our futures were up 56 this morning after the Dow Jones finished up 142 on better than expected jobs numbers and a bounce in commodities. The Dow was up 178 at best, breaking above 15,000 for its first time and the S&P 500 made a fresh all time high of 1618.46.

US non-farm payrolls (employment) was up 165,000 in April, beating the forecasts of 145,000. Employment in February and March was also revised up in with March up from a gain of 88,000 jobs to a gain of 138,000 jobs. The US unemployment rate fell from 7.6% to a 4.5-year low of 7.5%.

Copper up 6.52% in the US.

Best sectors — industrials, materials, energy, financials. BHP and RIO up 2.86% and 4.22% in the US with BHP closed at the equivalent of 3279c up 82c on Friday’s close here.

European markets up — UK FTSE up 0.94%, German DAX up 2.02%, France up 1.40%, Spain up 1.65%, Italy up 1.04%.

Metals up — copper up 6.11%, nickel up 3.73%, zinc up 3.49%, aluminium up 4.10%.

Spot iron ore down $1.30 to $128.10.

  • TD Securities-Melbourne Institute Monthly Inflation Gauge increased by 0.3% in April after a 0.2% rise in March.
  • Retail Sales First quarter were up +2.2% versus consensus of +1.7%.
  • ANZ Job Ads were down 1.3% in April, after a 0.5% fall in March.
  • Karoon Gas Australia (KAR) — Has made its second oil discovery offshore Brazil, raising the chances of finding another partner to share development costs. KAR is up 24.56% to 497c.
  • Boral Holdings (BLD) — Profit downgrade — BLD has issued a profit downgrade due to the continued weakness in the Aussie housing sector impacting their Construction Materials and Building Products divisions. As a result, it now expect profit to be in the range of $90 million and $105 million. It will announce its results on Wednesday, August 21, 2013. BLD is down 3.96% to 448c.
  • APN News and Media (APN) — Has appointed News Ltd’s (NWS) Michael Miller as CEO. His appointment is the latest in a boardroom shake-up. APN is up 4.73% to 38.75c.
  • Dexus Property Group (DXS) — Has teamed up with one of its funds to buy the Kings Square office property development site in Perth from Leighton Holdings (LEI) for $434.8 million. Dexus and the Dexus Wholesale Property Fund have each bought a 50% share.  DXS is up 1.28% to 118.75c.
  • Coming up — RBA meeting tomorrow (57% chance of a rate cut), unemployment numbers on Thursday, NAB results on Thursday, the budget on Tuesday next week, Mario Draghi speaks tonight (more likely to be positive than not), Chinese trade numbers due out tomorrow. AGMs this week from CCL, RIO, AMP, STO, CTX, OSH. EX dividends – ANZ on May 9, MQG and WBC on May 13.