The market is up 26. The SFE Futures were down 13 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 75, down 108 at worst. US consumer sentiment rose from 77.8 to 79.3 in May the highest reading in over four years. European markets were up with the German DAX performing the best +0.38%. Banks were the worst performers after Spain’s Bankia revealed it needs €15 billion in fresh capital. Gold was up $11.40. Oil was up 20c. Metals on the LME were mixed. A$ up at $98.21 from $97.71 on Friday. BHP and RIO ADR’s are both down 1.58% and 1.74%. BHP up 8c on the close on Friday. In Greece the New Democracy party (pro austerity) were ahead in the opinion polls over the weekend driving suggestions that they will not have to exit the euro after the June 17th elections. Dow Jones Futures up 64 this morning on the back of that although there is a holiday in the US tonight.

Main points:

  • Market up – We were set for a fall in the market this morning (Futures down 13) but Greek Polls over the weekend have seen a gain for the pro austerity New Democracy party and has the Dow Futures up 64 this morning (although Wall St is closed tonight). The suggestion is that Greece may not have to leave the Euro after the June 17th elections after all.
  • Eurobonds — There also seems to be some mild progress on the creation of Eurobonds by the EU — some leaders pushing for it and some suggestions that Angela Merkel is softening.
  • Meanwhile S&P downgrades five Spanish Banks, the newly nationalised Spanish Bankia bank puts its hand out for €19bn in rescue funds (shares suspended on Friday) with suggestions the Spanish government may ask the EU for bailout funds to cover it.
  • Resources doing better this morning on Chinese news reports that the Chinese foreign trade data had picked up in May. Iron ore stocks up
  • Hastie Group (HST) has gone into voluntary administration after a disastrous $20m accounting scandal was uncovered late last week. The announcement came just as HST was close to agreeing on a recapitalisation package with banks and investors that would have wiped out all the company’s debt. The company employs close to 8000 workers whose jobs are now in doubt. The corporate restructure firm PPB Advisory will try to recover as much as possible for Hastie stakeholders. The scandal has been referred to ASIC. Shares are suspended.
  • The eruption of a large fireball at Orica’s (ORI) port botany plant occurred late Friday evening. The fireball was due to a fault in a boiler causing excess gas to be burnt off. Firefighters stayed until late Friday night to ensure the fire was contained, no one was hurt.
  • ACCC has issued a draft for an agreement between NBN Co and Singapore Telecoms (SGT) Optus to migrate all of Optus’ clients onto the NBN and decommission parts of their hybrid fibre coaxial network as done with Telstra.
  • Woodside Petroleum (WPL) says their newly commissioned $14.9bn Pluto LNG terminal is operating at 65% capacity, much higher than planned for the month.

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