The market is up 32. The SFE Futures were up 9 this morning.

Wall Street closed up 109 overnight. The Dow was up 111 at best and down 4 at worst. The Dow set a new two year high and closed only 20 points below the 12,000 mark. Better-than-expected results from Alcoa and McDonalds provided the catalyst, as did the IMF raising its world economic growth forecast from 4.2% to “slightly more than the 4.75% registered last year”.  The Oil price dropped $1.24 to $87.87, the Gold price put on $3.50 to $1344.50 and the Aussie dollar is now below parity again at 99.76c after lower than expected CPI numbers this morning.

Today’s main stories…

  • The CPI number is out — WELL BELOW EXPECTATIONS — despite some headline grabbing economists suggesting we would see CPI at 3.0% on the year with rate rises to follow the underlying CPI number is up 2.2% on the year and up 0.3% on the quarter instead of the predicted 0.7%.
  • Virgin Blue (VBA) — Profit Warning — Expects a net profit for the 6 months to Dec of $23m-$26m, down from $62.5m a year ago. They blame the floods in QLD and an outage on its booking system that disrupted flights last year. VBA down 3.5% to 41c.
  • Newcrest Mining (NCM) — 2nd Production Numbers–– NCM produced 722,783 troy ounces of gold in the 2ndQ, up 7% on the previous Q. Cash costs fell 10% during the quarter to $440/oz but say the floods caused output to fall at their NSW site. NCM up 1.67% to 3765c.
  • Oil Search (OSH) — Production Numbers — 4th oil and gas output totaled 1.86m barrels of oil equivalent, up 1% on the previous Q. They maintained their FY production outlook and have $US1.26bn in cash. OSH up 2c to 679c.
  • GWA Group Ltd (GWA) — Trading Update — Underlying like-for-like sales in the 1st H increased below expectations after poor weather, but EBIT is still on track. GWA down 5c to 339c.
  • Mirvac Group (MGR) will take a $215m provision against inventories on slow sales and oversupply in certain markets. Reiterated FY11 distribution guidance of 8-9c. MGR down 2% to 126.5c.
  • Linc Energy (LNC) announced it will continue its agreement with BP Australia to take 14,000 barrels a day from Linc’s underground coal gasification facility in South Australia. LNC up 1.5% to 262c.
  • Brockman Resources (BRM) refutes press suggestions saying they are not in merger discussions with FerrAus (FRS) BRM up 8c to 508c and FRS unchanged at 94c.
  • Stocks hitting 52 week highs: Austereo Group (AEO), Cape Lambert (CFE), Envestra (ENV), Monadelphous Group (MND), Fleetwood (FWD).

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