Crikey

The market is up 65. The SFE Futures were up 59 this morning.

Wall St. was up 131 overnight. The Dow was up 175 at best and up 2 at worst. The story overnight was Gold after it hit a record intraday high and closed up $21.90 to $1040. The Aussie dollar also took off on the back of the RBA lifting rates yesterday by 25bps and Australia being the first major country to do so. The US$ hit a 14 month low against the $A.

The US Results season kicks off tonight with the first major result from Alcoa. Expectations are for Q3 average profits growth of 25%. The last results season surprised on the upside thanks to a cost cutting inspired rise in profits. If the recovery takes hold you might expect a more revenue inspired rise in profits although that might be a bit premature at this point. After a 50% rally in the market the risks are perhaps on the downside with this results season….rather than be a catalyst for a bigger rally we need a good one to justify the recent rally. Outlook statements all important as always.

Very quiet on the news front this morning…

• Gold stocks flying today after the Gold price broke up last night hitting a new all time high and feeding talk of $1200. NCM up 6.8% to 3518c, SBM up 8.2% to 33c and LGL up 5.3%.
• Street Talk reports that Chinese nickel company Jinchuan is interested in buying BHP Billiton’s Ravensthorpe nickel laterite operation and have appointed Gresham Partners and Sino Resources Capital.
• United Minerals (UMC) in a trading halt. Last traded at 91c.
• Brambles (BXB) down 5.64% to 703c despite the broker research relating to its 9 month CHEP US review not being all that bad.
• Fortescue Metals (FMG) up 5.3%  — if it can maintain that form, it will finish the day higher for the first time in 10 sessions. The stock has been on the slide after announcing it had missed its own self-imposed funding deadline with Chinese financiers.
• Iluka Resources (ILU) up 4c to 380c after announcing its sales in the 2H of 2009 are tracking in line with sales and volumes forecasts the company had previously given.
• Australian housing finance fell 0.6% in August, smaller than the 1% fall the market had expected.
• Stocks hitting fresh yearly highs today include Bell Financial Group (BFG), Biota Holdings (BTA), NIB Holdings (NHF) and Specialty Fashion (SFC) which is up 28.89% in the past Q.
• Woolworths (WOW), Coles and Metcash’s IAG stores have been banned from bidding for certain retail sites in Canberra under a new policy released.

The Dow Futures are up 8 at midday.

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

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