The market is up 19. The SFE Futures were down 7 this morning. Market bounced yesterday on the news that Dubai had received $10 billion in financing from their neighbour Abu Dhabi.

Wall St. closed up 29. Dow was up 43 at best and unchanged at worst.  President Obama’s speech, Abu Dhabi providing assistance to Dubai and ExxonMobil announcing a $31bn acquisition of XTO Energy dominated the market. Oil price continued its slide — falling 36c to $69.51 and Gold put on $3.90 to $1123.90.

  • RBA Minutes are out — The main message is that the RBA’s decision to raise rates earlier this month was “finely balanced” and gives policy makers “greater flexibility” at future meetings.
  • Street Talk points out that with demand for assets in the hardware sector heating up, Reece Australia (REH) might be next in line to be taken over. It has 430 stores and $1.5bn worth of revenue. It wouldn’t be an easy acquisition to complete. It is capitalised at $2.24bn and more than two-thirds of its shares are owned by the Wilson family which bought into the business in 1969.
  • Eastern Star Gas (ESG) says production from key development well is tracking as expected and remains on target. ESG up 1c to 76c.
  • Perpetual (PPT) has acquired Fordham Group which has around $500m of FUM and advice. PPT up 12c to 3696c.
  • Patersons Securities has upped its iron ore price forecasts and are now factoring in a 20% rise in the fines benchmark for 2010 contract years — April 2010 to March 2011. Their long term iron ore price assumption is US$55/t based on the current marginal cost of production.
  • Amcor (AMC) has received European Commission approval to acquire the European assets of RIO’s Alcan Packaging business on the condition AMC sells two flexible plants in Spain. AMC CEO says the two plants only represent less than 5% of European sales. AMC down 1c to 619c.
  • Commonwealth Property (CPA) has cut the value of 14 assets in its portfolio by 1.1% or $20.5m for the three month period. CPA up 1c to 94.
  • Eircom Holdings (ERC) says its earnings and revenue will be lower than last year and is looking at various measures to improve its costs structure. ERC unchanged at 54c.
  • Australian dwelling commencements in the September quarter increased by 9.4% to 34,082 units. Economists expected a 6% rise.
  • Lend Lease (LLC) has started work on a new $300m Melbourne wholesale fruit. Vegetable and flower market. LLC down 2c to 941c.
  • Stocks hitting fresh yearly highs today: Coca Cola Amatil (CCL), REA Group (REA) and Virgin Blue (VBA).

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

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