The market is up 34. The SFE Futures were up 36 this morning.

Wall Street was up 115 — the US ended its 3 three day weekend by making up some of Fridays losses. 50 stocks in the S&P 500 hit a new year high along with 7 stocks in the Dow 30. Metals did well as did the Gold price — up $10 to $1140.50. Oil fell 63c to $77.37. The Aussie dollar fell to 92.42c from 92.65c. Main US results tonight include Bank of America, Bank of NY, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and eBay.

In the news today…

  • BHP Billiton’s 2Q production numbers came out this morning. They has been described as strong and solid. Their iron ore division impressed with better-than-expected numbers. Talk of BHP Billiton and ArcelorMittal creating an iron ore JV in West Africa. One broker says it makes sense since the projects in the region are marginal compared to other deposits around the world. BHP up 56c to 4386c.
  • Seek (SEK) has announced some management reshuffles to its Think Education division. Peter Everingham has become the MD of the division while co-CEO Andrew Bassat will retain overall responsibility for Seek Education. SEK has struggled in the past month, down 5.4% compared to the 4.5% in the overall market but is up 9c today to 655c.
  • MAp Group (MAP) says international traffic numbers at Sydney Airport increased by 11.4% in December and expects that type of growth to continue. MAP up 18c or 6.19% to 309c.
  • China remains the biggest foreign holder of US government securities, owning US$790B of US public sector debt in November according to official data (Treasury bills: US$108.5B; Treasury notes and bonds: US$681.1B).
  • Profit upgrades from Computershare, Commonwealth Bank and Flight Centre in the last few days are setting the tone for a good results season next month.
  • Chris Morris the Chairman of Computershare made $52m yesterday on the rise in the value of his 49.9m shares after the company announced a profit upgrade. The stock has taken a breather today and is down 12c to 1228c.
  • Orocobre (ORE) up 29% to 180c on news that Toyota Tsusho will invest US$4.5m to complete their feasibility study.
  • Consumer Confidence increased 5.6% in January and is now only 3.1% below its record high.  One economist says a 25bp rate rise by the RBA next month is even more likely.
  • The WA government has selected Lend Lease Group (LLC) as the preferred developer of the first stage of the 710-hectare Alkimos coastal development. LLC up 5.6% to 1000c.
  • Stocks hitting fresh yearly highs: Bendigo & Adelaide Bank (BEN), Flight Centre (FLT), Indophil Resources (IRN), Treasury Group (TRG) and Virgin Blue (VBA).

The Dow Futures were down 10 at midday.

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