The market is up 7. The SFE Futures were down 16 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 47 overnight. It was up 47 at best and down 65 at worst. Commodities disappointed again overnight. Silver fell 4.4% to $33.73, the Oil price dropped $2.28 to $97.37 and Gold lost $3 and is now trading at $1490.60. The Aussie dollar improved slightly to 105.72c compared to 105.70c yesterday. European finance ministers approved a bailout package for Portugal and are currently in talks with Greece to provide additional support.

Today’s main stories…

  • The Reserve Bank of Australia has released the minutes from their last meeting when they left interest rates on hold at 4.75%. The main quote to come out was that “if economic conditions continued to evolve as expected, higher interest rates were expected to be required at some point”. The Aussie dollar has hardly moved since the minutes were released.
  • James Hardie (JHX) expects to begin paying dividends again after their 2nd Q result in November and FY result in May next year. They also announced plans to buyback 5% of issue capital on market over the next year. They will release their fiscal 2011 report on Thursday. JHX up 3.5% to 587c.
  • Fairfax Media (FXJ) says they are considering selling their broadcasting division which most analysts value at $264m. Citi says such a move makes sense. They have hired KPMG to conduct a review of the business. FXJ up 0.5c to 104.5c.
  • AMP Ltd (AMP) has completed initial integration plans for their merger with AXA and will continue to provide products under both brands as well as new products. AMP up 3c to 520c.
  • Mirvac Group (MGR) has reaffirmed their profit earnings guidance saying they remain on track to deliver earnings growth of between 12-14% in 2010/11. MGR up 0.5c to 121.5c.
  • Gloucester Coal (GCL) down 8% after announcing coal asset acquisitions and a capital raising. There are concerns that the management is focused on thermal coal assets rather than metallurgical coal where the market is tighter.
  • Lynas Corporation (LYC) has announced that the MSCI has added the company to the MSCI Australia Index. The changes will take place as of the close of 31 May 2011. LYC up 2c to 213c.
  • Perpetual (PPT) have announced funds under management up slightly to $28.5c from $28.2bn last month. PPT up 5c to 2870c.
  • Charter Hall Retail (CQR) is in a trading halt for 2 days. Last traded at 311c.

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