The market is up 45. The SFE Futures were up 9 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 93 overnight. Dow up 128 at best. The S&P 500 closed up 1.1%, its highest level since May 10 and is now up 6.7% over past eight days. Retailers and Financials outperformed. The AFP Employment report came in better than expected. The European Central Bank decided to lift interest rates for the second time this year by 25bps to 1.5%. The Bank of England decided to leave their target rate unchanged at 0.5%. Metals were up on the LME and the oil price put on $2.02 to $98.67. Gold up $1.40 to $1530.66.

In the news today…it’s been a quiet day to finish off the week.

  • News Corp.’s (NWS) Rupert Murdoch has decided to shut down its News of the World publication in response to allegations its journalists hacked the voicemails of thousands of people including child murder victims. The scandal poses a growing threat to Murdoch’s hopes of buying BSkyB. NWS up 1.3% to 1677c today after a 3.2% fall yesterday.
  • Rio Tinto (RIO) has appointed the former CEO of Barclays, John Varley as a non-executive director. RIO up 1% to 8441c.
  • BHP Billiton (BHP) said their iron ore port and rail operations at Port Headland are recommencing after work was suspended due to a crashed crane. BHP up 1% to 4487c.
  • RBS believes that Woolworths (WOW) and its US-based partner, Lowe’s, entry into the Australian hardware market is unlikely to spark a price war with Wesfarmers’ (WES) Bunnings. RBS says Bunnings could lose customers but significant earnings erosion is unlikely due to limited price competition.  WOW up 15c to 2780c.
  • Cockatoo Coal (COK) up 7% after agreeing to sell 49% of their Woori project in QLD to Japan’s Mitshui & Co. for $37.25m. Linc Energy (LNC) has completed the acquisition of a controlling interest in Umiat, an oil field in Alaska. LNC
  • OM Holdings (OMH) announced they are in talks with Malaysian company, Cahya Mata, to build a $450m manganese and ferrosilicon smelting plant in the region.
  • Lynas (LYC) has signed a letter of intent to establish a joint venture to with Siemens to produce magnets for use at wind farms. LYC up 5% to 194c.
  • ROC Oil (ROC) has sold their 75% interest and withdrawn from Mozambique Channel exploration blocks. ROC unchanged at 33.5c.
  • Bradken (BKN) up 5% after announcing two acquisitions yesterday and getting a positive write up from brokers this morning. Just about all of them believe these acquisitions will be EPS accretive by FY13.
  • Quiet week ahead despite the US reporting season starting.

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