The market is up 75. The SFE Futures suggested a 60 point rise in the market this morning.

The Dow Jones was up 91 on Friday – It moved in 158 point range and finished the week up 1.23% on the back of positive employment data and better-than-expected earnings results.

The jobs numbers that caused so much trouble last month came in slightly better than expected for this month (+110,000 against forecasts of +100,000). More to the point was the fact that the number that caused all the trouble last month – the 4,000 surprise drop in payrolls in August – was revised to +89,000 (!). It was that number that prompted a collapse on Wall St, all the concerns about US economic growth and a 50bp cut in US interest rates. Doesn’t look like the Fed need to cut rates again at the meeting on 30-31 October. In fact you wonder whether they needed to cut interest rates in the first place….and if 50bp wasn’t too much.

Federal funds futures contracts now show a 52% chance the Fed will keep rates at 4.75%, up from 48% chance on Thursday. Financials had a good session despite Merrill Lynch announcing they will report their first quarterly loss in 6 years because of $5bn in writedowns on mortgages, asset-backed securities and buyout loans, and energy stocks also closed up despite a fall in the oil price. It was positive week for all three major indexes, the Dow hit a record high and put on 1.2%, the S&P 500 finished 2% higher and the NASDAQ closed up 2.9%.

Resources doing well, BHP up 71c to 4481c. Credit Suisse cut their recommendation on BHP to “Neutral” from “Outperform” saying 42% outperformance since mid August is testing the relationship between the BHP share price and the underlying commodity market. RIO up 358c or 3.3% to 11124c. You wonder whether we aren’t about to hear another RIO bid rumour – usually do when it outperforms BHP.

Metals all down on Friday, Zinc down 1.8%, Aluminium down 2.1% and Copper 1.1%. Nickel down 0.4%. Zinifex up 25c to 1863c. Credit Suisse maintained their “Outperform” recommendation on the stock and 2250c target price saying there is significant upside ahead. Oil price down 28c to $81.20 on the back rising oil inventories. Traders are expecting demand factors to provide future price direction. Woodside up 62c to 5240c. Gold up $3.40. Newcrest unchanged at 2820c.

Our market has started the week in a positive mood and is up 1.1%. We have a relatively busy week ahead, quite a bit of economic stuff here and in the US. Main numbers are probably the PPI numbers in the US and Retail Sales. It is the start of the US 3Q results season with Alcoa reporting after hours on Tuesday, and the Australian banks results season starts with Bank of Queensland on Thursday. See the Marcus Today Dairy for the Banks results calendar and the Resources 3Q production number reporting calendar.

  • Seek (SEK) announced this morning they have taken a 50% strategic stake in Amadeus Education Holdings, a private education group for $37.5m. SEK has been an exceptional performer since listing in 2004 and is now looking to make their presence felt in the education sector and expand their Seek Learning division. SEK first diversified into the education and training market in 2004 after acquiring SelfCert and rebranded it Seek Learning. SEK down 2c to 870c.
  • Both Symbion (SYB) and Healthscope (HSP) are in a trading halt this morning, talk is that it has something to do with an alternative merger proposal. SYB last traded at 420c, HSP at 575c.
  • ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) has completed their strategic review of their wholesale mortgage distribution business, Origin Mortgage Management Services, and have decided to retain ownership of it despite the recent credit crunch. ANZ up 33c to 3090c.
  • Transurban Group (TCL) announced revenue from their Citylink motorway in Melbourne increased by 8.3% in the 1Q to $95.3m from $88m last year. Hills M2 road in Sydney recorded a 16% increase in revenue to $30.1m, Westlink M7 was up 5.9% to $18.2m and revenue the Pocahontas Parkway in Virginia, US was up 8.9% to $US3.5m. TCL up 5c to 725c.
  • The Aussie dollar has hit a 23 year high – it hit US90.06c before falling back against to US89.93c.
  • Companies going ex dividend today include – AIA, ARP, ASL, KZL, LMC, MIN, MSL, NCI, NOD and THO.

In the MARCUS TODAY newsletter today…some broker analysts are simply dedicated to finding stocks that go up in price – you just have to spot them.

THE MORNING MARKET REPORT is provided by the MARCUS TODAY daily stockmarket newsletter. You can subscribe for a free five-day trial here.