The market is up 22. It was up 60 on the open. Not a lot of news around. The SFE Futures suggested a 21 point rise in the market this morning.

The Dow Jones was up 76 – It moved in a 128 point range and finished higher for the second consecutive session on hopes the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by 50bp will result in improved economic growth and provide the housing market with some relief. Financials had a good session despite Morgan Stanley (down 2.2%) announcing a lower-than-expected profit. It was losses on loans for leveraged buyouts and a decline in fixed-income trading that did the damage; Bear Stearns (down 3%) and Goldman Sachs Group (up 2.5%) both report tonight. Economic data overnight supported the Fed’s decision to cut rates, the Commerce Department said construction of new homes and apartments has hit a 12 year low and both the August consumer price index and core CPI came in as expected. The big gains in the last couple of sessions now leaves the Dow index just 1.3% below its closing high of 14,000 set in July, the S&P 500 is just 1.6% below its record high set on July 19, but the NASDAQ still has a long way to go if its going to reach its record close mainly because of the dot-com boom earlier in the decade.

Resources going gangbusters – all metal prices had a great night on the back of the US 50bp interest rate cut which is expected to lift US economic growth (good for metal demand). The London Metal Exchange was closed when the Fed cut rates. BHP up 64c to 4108c and RIO up 71c to 10250c. Metals all up overnight, Nickel up a big 9%, Zinc up 4.8% and Copper 3.8%. Aluminium up 3.1%. Zinifex up 37c to 1693c. Oil price up 48c to $81.99 and closed in record territory for the seventh straight session after refineries in California and Texas said they had new outages, and a government report showed a surprisingly large fall in oil inventories. Woodside up 78c to 4813c. Gold up $5.80. Newcrest up 48c to 2854c. A little quite today…

  • AMP have appointed current Financial Services division boss, Craig Dunn as their new CEO. The internal appointment of Dunn, who joined AMP in 2000, shows confidence in the current management group. Mohl will be sorely missed, he has done an exceptional job in turning around the business since announcing an $896m loss in 2002 and abandoning their UK ambitions.
  • Not good – Sigma Pharmaceuticals (SIP) reported a 39% fall in 1H07 net profit and a profit warning – flat profits for the year ahead down from guidance of +10-15%. A dividend of 3c was declared, down from 3.6c. Citigroup say they are concerned about the current valuation of the intangibles in SIP’s balance sheet and say “Unless SIP captures significant profitable market share via new product launches, this valuation must be questionable.” The stock is down 18c or 11.8% today to 130c and down 42% in the last 3 months.
  • Coles Group (CGJ) research this morning is pretty damning after poor results yesterday – seems Wesfarmers have a big job on their hands turning it all around. ABN AMRO say the company’s Food and Liquor business has gone backwards dramatically and Woolworths (WOW) will make sure Wesfarmers (WES) sits behind the 8 ball. Merrill Lynch says “We believe that both Coles and Wesfarmers (WES.AU) shareholders should be particularly alarmed at how poorly Coles has performed over the past 12 months”. WES up 49c to 4068c and CGJ up 15c to 1515c.
  • Macquarie Airports (MAP) announced this morning they have completed the Birmingham Airport deal with Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan Board and that August traffic at their 72.1%-owned Sydney Airport increased 8.2% from the same time last year. Around 2.5 million passengers passed through domestic and international terminals during the month. MAP down 1c today to 427c.
  • The AFR was on the money yesterday, SP Ausnet (SPN) announced this morning they have agreed with Singapore Power to buy $8.142bn worth of Alinta (ANN) assets, they will use a mix of debt and equity to fund the deal. SPN down 1.5c to 137.5c.
  • Companies going ex-dividend today include: CGF, FAN, FXL.

We have a list in the MARCUS TODAY newsletter today showing all the numbers on the ASX 200 and how far the stocks have to rise to recover their year highs. You may thing you’ve missed the bottom, and you have, but there is still plenty of upside if we are about to embark on the next up-leg of the Bull market. In particular we highlight the metal stocks that still have some ground to make up. Metal prices are expected to run for a while as hopes for better US economic growth settle in. Get a Free Trial of the MARCUS TODAY newsletter and subscribe before Monday at www.marcustoday.com.au and get in the draw to win two iPods and access to a promotional price.

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