The market is up 82. The SFE Futures suggested a 74 point rise in the market this morning.

The Dow Jones was up 191 overnight – It moved in a 221 point range and closed in record territory on the belief that the worst of the credit crises is over. The Dow began the 4Q in a bullish mood and made a new intraday high of 14115.51 thanks to 28 of its 30 members closing higher. Procter & Gamble, Exxon Mobil, United Technologies and McDonald’s all closed in record territory, International Business Machines, General Electric, Coca-Cola and Verizon Communications all hit five-and-a-half-year highs. Homebuilders finished higher, (Pulte Homes up 8.7%, Centex up 5.1% and D.R Horton up 5.1%) after Citigroup upped their recommendation on the sectors bigger companies and financials also had a good session. In takeover activity, Nokia announced it would buy Navteq for $8.1bn and ABN AMRO completed the $21bn sale of their Chicago-based LaSelle unit to Bank of America. According to Dealogic, there was $992.1bn worth of deals done during the 3Q, down 43% from the previous quarter. The S&P 500 also had a good session; it put on 1.3% and is only 8 points away from its record high. The NASDAQ closed up 1.4%; it still has a long way to go in reaching its high of 5,045.62 back in 2000.

Our market has followed Wall Street’s lead overnight and is also in record territory – up 1.2%. Resources doing well…BHP up 122c or 2.7% to 4572c, RIO up 253c to 11137c. Both stocks are up 18% in the past month. Rio’s (RIO) CEO Tom Albanese told CNBC that he expects the strong growth in China’s steel sector to continue and that the company has little exposure to a potential US economic slowdown. Metals mostly up overnight, Zinc up 1.6%, Copper up 1.1% and Aluminium 0.3%. Nickel down 0.3%. Zinifex up 32c to 1806c. Oil price down $1.33 to $80.31 on concerns that oil fundamentals don’t support current prices. Woodside has hit record highs this morning, up 73c to 5187c. Gold up $4.10. It rallied yesterday to its highest level in nearly 28 years. Newcrest up 13c to 2923c. Lihir Gold taking a breather today, down 4c to 408c, the stock is up 32% in the past month.

The market was up a huge 4.2% in September in what is usually statistically one of the worst months of the year. On the diary front – there is an RBA meeting tomorrow with no change in interest rates expected at 9:30am on Wednesday. Other releases this week include retail sales, trade deficit and building approvals. Banks going gangbusters today, NAB up 1.8%, ANZ up 1.7%, CBA up 1.1% and WBC up 2.6% to 2921c.

  • The big news today is Westpac (WBC) striking a deal with RAMS Home Loans (RHG) to buy their brand name and distribution business for $140m in cash. RHG initially hit 90c upon the announcement but is now down 14c or 15% to 72c. The stock has been smacked since listing around two months ago at 250c a share. Under the deal, RAMS’ franchise distribution business will be separated from its funding division and WBC will takeover RAMS brand name and franchise and all new business after November, leaving RHG with its existing $14.5bn loan book to service any new business. Talk yesterday was that the National Australia Bank (NAB) was the Australian bank that had taken the strategic stake.
  • Territory Resources (TTY) up 8% to 128c after announcing on Friday they had shipped their first iron ore. They have another 4 shipments planned for the rest of the year. TTY is up 362% in the past 12 months.
  • Babcock & Brown (BNB) announced they have financially closed out a 40-year old project in Belgium. Their equity stake is worth EUR27m. BNB still 15% off its all time high, up 75c to 2775c.
  • Mirvac Group (MGR) up 4c to 545c, they have agreed to acquire a portfolio of industrial sites in QLD for $255m.
    DB RREEF Trust (DRT) up 6.5c or 3.3% to 203c after announcing they had acquired the remaining 20% stake in their US joint venture with CalWest for US$320m. DRT now have full ownership of the $1.46bn portfolio that includes 98 industrial properties. DRT up 25% in the past year.
  • Wotif (WTF) yesterday launched a takeover bid for Travel.com.au (TVL), valuing the company at $49.8m. WTF’s bid trumps the previous $42.3m bid from online competitor
  • Webjet (WEB) which involved WEB offering 10c cash and 0.23 WEB shares for each TVL shares. Wotif is offering TVL shareholders the choice of 50c cash or between 0.0893 and 0.1042 WTF shares per TVL share. WTF down 8c to 526c, TVL up 2c to 60c and WEB down 3c to 150c.
  • Publishing & Broadcasting (PBL) yesterday announced plans to build a third hotel at Crown Melbourne. Construction is due to start this month and is expected to be finished by May 2010. Goldman Sachs JB Were maintained their BUY recommendation this morning and 2235c target price.
  • Aussie dollar hit an 18 and a half year high overnight touching 86.48c.
  • Companies going ex dividend include AVE, DKS, FCL, FUN and IDT.

We have a list in the MARCUS TODAY newsletter today showing all the numbers on the ASX 200 and how far the stocks have to rise to recover their year highs.

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