The market is up 11. The SFE Futures were down 4 this morning.

US Markets closed overnight for the Thanksgiving holiday. They will be open tonight for a half day closing at 1pm. European markets were generally up with BHP and RIO both in the black in the UK and metal prices up. The Bank of Ireland did its best impression of a dead cat bounce, edging higher after shedding nearly 50% over the previous three trading days. Metals prices were all up. The Aussie dollar was a touch down to 98.05c from 98.11c.

Today’s main points … pretty quiet — Wall St was closed overnight.

  • Aristocrat Leisure — Trading Update = Profit Downgrade — Down 15% first thing. Says FY operating profit will halve to $50m-$60m compared to $116.4m last year. The figure is 30% below what analysts were forecasting.
  • Telstra (TLS) hesitating today for the first time since the AGM and the record low last week. Up from 255c to 291c … up 14% in a week. TLS down 3c today to 285c.
  • Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has completed its retail bond bookbuild. Says it experienced strong support from syndicate brokers. CBA down 24c to 4777c.
  • Fortescue Metals’ (FMG) second largest shareholder, Hunan Valin Iron and Steel Group of China, has sold around $193m worth of stock, cutting their holding to 16.26% from 17.3%. FMG up 7c to 670c.
  • DUET Group (DUE) — AGM — CEO Peter Barry has announced his retirement effective Feb 25. David Bartholomew will replace him. John Roberts will take over as Chairman. DUE expects a FY distribution of 20c and a 10c final distribution for 6 months ended June 30, 2011. DUE up 1.5c to 172c.
  • Lend Lease (LLC) has won a $240m construction management contract for British Land. LLC down 4c to 759c.
  • RBA Governor Glenn Stevens says he will take bank lending rates into account in future months when deciding on interest rate movements. He also said that it’s reasonable that markets are not pricing for a near term rate hike.
  • Premier Investments (PMV) — AGM — Expects earnings in 2010/11 from its core operation, Just Group, will be at the lower end of its earlier guidance rage of $100-$110m. PMV down 2% to 627c.
  • Stocks hitting fresh 52 week highs: Domino Pizza (DMP), Coalspur Mines (CPL), Mantra Resources (MRU), Seven Group Holdings (SVW).

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