Crikey

The market is up 205 or 3.6% this morning. The SFE Futures suggested a 190 point rise in the market this morning.

The Dow Jones was up 233 on Friday – Wall St. moved in a 320 point range and closed up for the first time in six sessions after the Federal Reserve did what Wall Street was hoping for and cut its discount rate (primary credit rate actually). The discount rate was cut to 5.75% from 6.25% after the Federal Reserve acknowledged the volatility in the last couple of weeks posed a risk to economic growth. They also extended their lending period from overnight to 30 days and relaxed their collateral requirements to include home mortgages. It was a volatile session; the Dow index initially hit its intra day high of 320, then fell 160 points and then rallied again towards the end of trade. In other news, financial and energy stocks recovered some of the previous session’s losses; Exxon Mobil, Alcoa, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers closed up over 4%. The Dow index is now 6% down since reaching its record 14,000.41 on July 19; it finished 1.21% lower for the week. The S&P 500 closed 0.53% down and the NASDAQ also did it tough losing 1.57%. The 233 point rise in the Dow on Friday has been seen as a short covering rally….in other words people closing out their negative views more than taking positive ones. Not sure there’s a lot of heart to be gained from that.

Resources doing well along with the rest of the market. BHP up 185c to 3429c and RIO up 359c to 8475c. Both were up over 4% in ADR form on Friday. Metals all on Friday, Copper up 3.9%, Zinc up 2.6% and Nickel up 3.56%. Aluminium up 1%. Zinifex up 96c to 1564c. Oil price up 91c to $71.90 after the Federal Reserve cut its discount rate and eased concerns about the global economy slowing. Woodside up 120c to 3995c. Gold up $8.80. Newcrest up 52c to 2478c. Credit Suisse maintained their OUTPERFORM recommendation and 2800c target price after NCM announced their profit result last week.

A few earnings results today –

• Seek (SEK) have announced a better-than-expected profit result this morning. NPAT up 63% to $55.5m from $34.2m last year. Analysts had expected $53.7m. Revenue came in at $157m, up from $106.2m last year with online classified revenue up 47% to $140.2m Joint CEP Paul Bassat says the shift to online unemployment advertisement spending has “some way to run”. SEK up 47c to 753c.
• QBE Insurance Group (QBE) up 185c or 6.7% to 2935c after announcing a better-than-expected 1H07 earnings result. NPAT up 56% to $921m from $591m a year ago, analysts had expected something in the range of $742m and $856m. Insurance profit was up 41% to $1,053m, up from $748m in 2006. QBE has been a solid performer, QBE down 10% in the last quarter but up 20% in the past year.
• BluescopeSteel (BSL) up 22c to 1045c after announcing a $686.6m profit, double that of last year. Revenue was also up from $8.03bn to $8.91bn and declared a 24c dividend.
• HFA Holdings (HFA) up 14c or 7.7% to 194c after announcing another profit upgrade. They upped their guidance to $20.3m from the $19m previously forecasted. It is their third upgrade since June this year. The stock has been hammered lately and is down 18% in the last month.
• Coca-Cola Amatil (CCL) has announced the sale of their South Korean unit. The price is expected to be in line with previous guidance given of between $520m and $545m. The sale will be completed in October with CCL to keep a 10% stake. CCL up 6c to 905c.
• Western Areas (WSA) has announced a new chairman. David Cooper has stepped down and will be replaced with Terry Streeter. WSA down 2c to 392c.
• CSR Ltd (CSR) up 4c to 312c, they announced they are in talks to acquire glass maker DMS glass.

There are clearly some stocks that have been clobbered in the short term that are good long term investments as well. They include BNB, MBL, ORI, LEI, OXR, UGL to name a few….we will list the big stocks that have fallen the most in the Marcus Today newsletter today along with their numbers.

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