The market is up 10. The SFE Futures were up 8 this morning.

Wall Street closed up 59 on Friday. The Dow was up 63 at best and down 21 at worst. It was the lowest volume session of the year. The S&P 500 had its biggest weekly gain in a year last week – up 5.4%. Results season kicks off with Alcoa releasing numbers tonight. The oil price went up 65c to $76.09, Gold was up $13.70 to $1210 and the Aussie dollar was up to 87.61c from 86.34c Friday morning.

Main news…

  • Orica have demerged their DuluxGroup business and created a new listed ASX company called DuluxGroup Ltd. DuluxGroup (DLX) listed at 250c a share this morning at 11am and was up 8% at one stage. Now at 268c. ORI on the other hand is down 4.79% to 2345c.
  • Sigma Pharmaceuticals (SIP) tells their shareholders to take NO ACTION and have refused to extend Aspen Pharmacare’s request for exclusive due diligence. Instead, they want to work together with Aspen to improve the bid. SIP unchanged at 45.5c.
  • Billabong International (BBG) buys RVCA, a “progressive” clothing brand in California, US for an undisclosed sum. It’s not a material acquisition, they expect it to contribute 2% to overall group revenue and be EPS neutral in FY11. BBG up 1c to 911c.
  • BlueScope Steel (BSL) and Grange have agreed to a US$150 per dry metric tonne interim price for iron ore pellets delivered from Grange’s Port Latta facility during the Q beginning 1 July 2010. BSL up 3c to 222c.
  • Transurban (TCL) has released traffic numbers – June Q CityLink average daily traffic is up 8% on last year and revenue is up 12%. TCL down 3c to 431c.
  • Andean Resources (AND) up nearly 10% to 345c – no announcement.
  • Street Talk says the delay in Photon Group’s (PGA) prospectus is due to a handful of earn-out beneficiaries who are yet to sign. PGA last traded at 102c.
  • OceanaGold (OGC) announced drilling at NZ’s biggest gold mine has uncovered fresh deposits likely to extend the sites reserves. OGC up 7% to 336c.
  • White Energy (WEC) says they will raise between $94.1m-$144.8m for an exploration program once they take over South Australia Coal. WEC up 5.8% to 328c.
  • May Housing finance approvals came in higher than expected – up 1.9%. Economists expected no change.
  • Stock hitting fresh yearly highs today include: Equinox Minerals (EQN), Mitchell Communications (MCU), Iluka Resources (ILU)

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