The market is up 6. The SFE Futures were up 24 this morning.

Wall St. closed up 31. The Dow was up 48 at best and down 13 at worst. US Markets are closed tonight for Thanksgiving Holiday. It was the lowest volume session in three months. Plenty of economics news kept the market busy. Gold finished higher for the 9th consecutive session, up $21.20 to $1187. The Aussie dollar was higher to 93.15c up from 91.89c yesterday morning.

Making the news today…

  • BHP Billiton held its AGM this morning. It expects global economy to be sluggish and challenging but continues to expect long term demand from China. It also expects FY10 expenditure of $10bn. Makes mention that total shareholder return has increased by 220% over the past 5 years. BHP up 29c to 4148c.
  • Woolworths (WOW) also held its AGM. Maintained earnings guidance. It told shareholder that 2010 sales are expected to grow in upper single digits and expects net profit (after tax) to grow between 8-11%. Chairman James Strong says its entry into the hardware space will take time but lead to EPS growth. It is still open to other opportunities. WOW up 12c to 2830c
  • Street Talk mention rumours of Chinalco selling its stake in Rio Tinto might have been made up by those who want to short the stock. RIO down 1.3% to 7076c.
  • Telstra CEO David Thodey talks at the ACCA today. This was timed to coincide with government debate on the legislation to structurally separate Telstra which, thanks to the ETS debate has been delayed.
  • AXA Asia Pacific (AXA) holds a strategy conference next week. It provides management the opportunity to show why it shouldn’t accept the $12bn takeover offer from AMP Ltd (AMP). There has been talk of overseas hedge funds appearing on AXA’s registry. AXA down 4c to 573c and AMP down 11c to 815c.
  • Amcor (AMC) is selling its flexible packaging plant to gain regulatory approval from the European Union to buy some of RIO’s Alcan Packaging assets. The EU’s review of the acquisition has been extended until December 14.
  • Minara Resources (MRE) and China Metallurgical Group have jointly bid for BHP’s Ravensthorpe nickel operations.
  • Mirvac Real Estate Investment Trust (MRZ) unit holders have approved Mirvac Group’s (MGR) improved takeover offer.
  • Tower Australia Group (TAL) announces a net profit of $46.6m, up from $68.7m last year. Underlying profit increased by 10% to $74.5m.
  • Virgin Blue (VBA) tells shareholders at its AGM that it is currently profitable and there are signs of a domestic recovery, but the economic environment still remains uncertain. It has a cash balance of $777m. VBA up 0.5c to 52c.

The Dow Futures down 2 at midday.

MARCUS PADLEY is the author of the MARCUS TODAY Daily Stockmarket Newsletter.

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