The market is up 30. The SFE Futures were up 24 this morning.

Wall St. closed up 2 overnight. The Dow was up 53 at best and down 14 at worst. The S&P 500 index finally hit positive territory for the year. Greek tensions eased and Greek spreads narrowed after the Greeks announced a 4.8bn Euro austerity package. Metals all closed higher, Gold put on $19 to $1137 and Oil increased 87c to $79.60c. The Aussie dollar lifted to 90.39c compared to 90.11c yesterday morning.

In the news today…

  • Australia’s GDP data and National Account came in as expected. 4Q09 GDP came in at 0.9% and 2.7% for the year. (Economists expected 2.4% on the year) Treasurer Wayne Swan says the growth in the economy makes Australia the envy of the developed world.
  • The RBA upped interest rates by 25bps to 4% yesterday afternoon. Some economists this morning are talking about rates hitting 4.75% – 5% by the end of the year.
  • Street Talk says when the Basel III global capital adequacy rules come into play, ANZ Bank (ANZ) will need every bit of their top tier-one ratio. Citi says ANZ could lose the biggest proportion of their ratio if their suite of investments in Asia and wealth management is deducted 100% from tier one capital versus the 50% under the current Basel II rules. ANZ down 1c to 2382c.
  • Western Areas (WSA) up 4.2% to 471c after announcing they are looking for a partner to develop their six exploration projects in Finland involving nickel, copper and zinc.
  • Platinum Australia (PLA) down 3% to 97c after telling the market a labour strike at their Smokey Hills Mine has resulted in most of the operations at the mine having to stop.
  • Coffey International (COF) make two acquisitions – they acquired Global Justice Systems paying $4.9m for 100% share capital and paid $420,000 and $3m in shares for Libra Advisory Group. COF up 4c to 189c.
  • The Australian Energy Resource Assessment predicts thanks to strong export demand, Australia’s energy production will nearly double by 2030 and Australian will consumer far less coal and much more gas.
  • Perseus (PRU) had entered into an agreement to take a 19.9% stake (10.4m shares – $418,700 outlay, with 10.4m attaching options) in Burey Gold – an exploration company with a focus is Guinea, West Africa. PRU up 3.2% to 189c.
  • Companies hitting fresh yearly highs: GUD Holdings (GUD), Hills Industries (HIL), MAp Group (MAP), SMS Management (SMX) and Virgin Blue (VBA).

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