Crikey

The market is down 23. The SFE Futures suggested a 10 point rise in the market this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 56 moving in a large 166 point range and closed up on the back of positive economic news and a fall in the oil price easing inflationary concerns. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve announced regional manufacturing in June increased to 18% from 4.2% in May, its strongest growth since April 2005. In company related news, Starbucks Corp. closed 3.9% lower after warning they will find it difficult to reach the top end of their 2007 earnings forecast, and H&R Block fell 3.3% after reporting a 4Q loss. Eyewear maker, Luxottica Group closed up after agreeing to a $2.1billion takeover offer from rival Oakley. The NASDAQ had a good session, closing 0.6% higher.

Resources mixed today…BHP up 40c to 3549c and RIO down 35c to 9915c. Metals mostly down overnight, Copper down 1.1%, Zinc down 2.6% and Aluminium 0.8%. Nickel up 1.6%. Zinifex unchanged at 1887c. Oil price down 61c to $67.89 on the back of news that a strike in Nigeria hasn’t affected oil exports from Africa’s affected oil exports. Woodside up 13c to 4700c. Gold down $5.80. Newcrest down 20c to 2305c.

MORE TIME TO EARN FREE MONEY — The Cemex bid for Rinker has been extended by three weeks from this evening until the 16 July. This means that the risk free arbitrage trade can be exploited for another three weeks and it takes the pressure off anyone that was trying to squeeze in their acceptance before this evening. The trade is even better than before with the A$ hitting 17-year highs and the Rinker price at 1855c….and Cemex guaranteeing 1950c for parcels of 2000 shares or less. There is now a whopping $1,900 dollars in it for you less dealing costs and time delays of having $37,100 tied up for a month.

• There is a Brambles private equity bid rumour doing the rounds - BXB flattened by its recent earnings update…on the mend…it was down 45c this morning. Now down 23c to 1185c.
• Caltex Australia (CTX) down 200c or 7.1% to 2600c on the back of an earnings update this morning that raised worries that they may not reach their FY refining output target. The guidance for 1H said they expect operating profit between $235m and $255m…promising refinery margins but completely overshadowed by refinery output target.
• Victorian smoking bans come in on 1 July. This is expected to upset the likes of Tattersalls (TTS) and Tabcorp (TAH) although from a share price point of view it has been well discounted. Deutsche Bank maintained their “sell” recommendation; they note the smoking bans, licence renewal costs, slot machine levy increases and a lack of acquisition opportunities and success. TTS down 1c to 482c and TAH down 33c to 1744c.
• Flight Centre (FLT) up another 84c or 3.7% to 1975c following yesterday’s rise, after signing a leveraged joint venture agreement with Pacific Equity Partners. They also expect pretax profit to be up 25%-30% from last year.
• ABN AMRO maintained their “Buy” recommendation on Fairfax (FXJ) saying they make a great takeover target and a private equity group could pay up to 600c a share and still make a decent buck out of it. FXJ unchanged at 480c.
• Sims Group (SGM) up 37c to 2712c after announcing it had entered into an agreement to merge their recycling assets with those of Adams Steel.
• CSL Ltd (CSL) having a good day today, up 72c to 9081c after plasma price increases. Continues the trend of rising IVIG prices and suggests CSL earnings more likely to be going up than down.
• Bonds down overnight with the 10 year yield up to 5.18% from 5.13%.
• Uranoz (URO) listed at 11.30am today. Only up 0.5c to 20.5c. The issue price is 20c so a little disappointing. The company holds the uranium assets of WCP Resources (used to be WC Penfold – stationary). WCP shareholders got a priority offer of 20m shares.

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