The market is up 28. The SFE Futures suggested a 28 point rise in the market this morning.

The Dow Jones was up 4 – It moved in a 96 point range and closed in record territory for the second consecutive day despite a big Chinese GDP number after hours yesterday that kicked off a few inflation worries. The Shanghai Composite Index closed down 4.5% after inflation hit the highest level in over 2 years and on the back of an 11.1% jump in Chinese GDP in the 1Q. The threat of higher interest rates in China caused European markets to close lower. It has been a strong earnings season thus far in the US with many companies exceeding analyst’s expectations. The NASDAQ closed down for the third straight session. Google was up 5% in after-hours trade after exceeding analysts expectations with a 69% increase in 1Q profits. It earned $1bn compared to $592.3m same time last year.

Resources mostly up today…BHP up 15c to 2977c and RIO down 35c to 8220c. Metals all down overnight, Copper down 2%, Aluminium down 1.2% and Nickel 0.8%. Zinc down 2.2%. Zinifex down 8c to 1532c. Oil price down $1.33 to $61.81 after Enbridge Inc, which supplies Canadian oil to the US resumed shipments through a pipeline that was shut. Woodside up 18c to 3873c. Gold down $5.

A little quiet today with not much happening today on the news front…

  • Publishing & Broadcasting (PBL) down 1c to 2050c despite the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau releasing March quarter gaming statistics showing a 44% rise in gaming revenue. It estimates 2007 gaming revenue will come in at around US$9.2bn for Macau –all good news for PBL. Goldman Sachs JBWere says it is one of their top picks in the communications, media and entertainment sector and that PBL will be worth a lot more if gaming revenue and visitation growth in Macau continues.
  • The AFR has reported this morning that Coles Group (CGJ) has allowed Woolworths (WOW) to access confidential data about the Target and Officeworks divisions. A bit of a kick in the teeth for Wesfarmers (WES) who showed concern about Woolworths accessing Coles’ information. WOW up 30c to 2885c, WES up 27c to 3832c and CGJ up 13c to 1724c.
  • Macquarie Airports (MAP) up 12c or 3.17% to 391c after receiving a few upgrades from brokers this morning who have upped their traffic growth forecasts for Sydney and Copenhagen.
  • Karoon Gas (KAR) up 11c to 228c on news that it will accept an offer of additional acreage in the Browse Basin.
  • Qantas bid acceptances have dropped yet again – from 28.86% to 27.48%. Qantas is 537c up 1c which is telling you that the market still thinks the bid will go through at 545c. The expectation is that the bid will be extended again by the Thursday deadline. It currently closes on 4 May.
  • RIO is up just 2c to 8258c on the back of some 1Q production numbers described by some brokers as disappointing and “mixed”. Won’t stop the BUY recommendations in the research on Monday… or the target prices over $100.
  • Virgin Blue is up 3c to 268c on the back of March traffic statistics up 12% YonY.
  • Orica is up another 45c to 3400c. All the research yesterday said that a bid at $35 would probably succeed and the expectation is that if private equity upped its bid to that level it would get board approval. So the price is on its way there.
  • Copper futures are falling on the Shanghai Futures Exchange taking the shine off copper stocks like Oxiana – down 3c to 300c.
  • Sigma Pharmaceuticals is up 7c to 247c with Citigroup initiating research coverage today with a BUY and a 288c target price.
  • Karoon Gas up 10c to 227c and is up from 191c two days ago as it confirms it has won new acreage in the Browse Basin.
  • Arrow Energy is down 5.5c to 197.5c today despite the news that it will replace SRG in the ASX 200 on 27 April after the takeover of SRG.

We have an article in the MARCUS TODAY about ‘Sell in May and Go Away’ – its just superstitious claptrap…so it might comes as a surprise to realise – It’s true. The performance on the market in the 6 months up to May is, on average since 1936, twice as good as the performance in the next six months. Last year the market fell 9.6% in a month starting on 11 May.

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