The market is up 75. The SFE Futures were up 49 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 202 overnight for its best day since March. Stocks lifted after Obama said a bipartisan group of Senators had agreed to a deficit-reduction plan that features tough spending cuts and a revenue component.

Housing starts and building permits were higher than expected. Positive results from IBM, Apple, and Coca-Cola, while Bank of America and Goldman Sachs disappointed.  The gold price ended its run, down $1.30 to $1601.10. The oil price up $1.57 to $97.50. The Australian dollar is now buying 107.28 US cents, up from 106.06c.

In the news today…

  • BHP Billiton (BHP) achieved annual production records in four commodities in FY2011. This included an 11th consecutive record in iron ore output from WA, which was up 8%. Production of petroleum products was higher, as was copper and thermal coal production. But metallurgical coal production was held back by wet weather earlier in the year and output and sales are expected to be impacted “to some extent” for the remainder of the calendar year. BHP up 1.8% to 4338c.
  • Downer EDI (DOW) has been awarded a contract, through a 50:50 joint venture with Bombardier Transportation Australia, with WA’s Public Transport Authority for the supply of passenger rail cars. The contract is valued at more than $160m, of which Downer’s share is in excess of $80m. DOW up 3.3% to 376c.
  • Asciano (AIO) has signed a new 5 year container contract with Maersk Line. The new contract is for the movement of the 503,000 containers a year, as per the existing contract, plus a further 190,000 containers per annum. AIO up 4.3%.
  • Woolworths’ (WOW) 4th Q sales were up 4.7% in the year to June 27th. CEO Michael Luscombe said the result came in “a very challenging year” for retail. WOW up 15c to 2740c.
  • Linc Energy (LNC) has terminated a US$236m deal to buy oil fields in Texas and Louisiana from ERG Resources LLC due to “alleged title defects identified during due diligence”. LNC will continue to pursue other acquisitions in the US. LNC up 1.7% to 292c.
  • News Corp. (NWS) up 4.3% after rising 5.7% overnight in the US after Rupert Murdoch declined to take the blame for the phone hacking scandal and insisted he won’t resign. Seen as a victory for Murdoch and enough to head off a full inquiry in the UK although the scandal is still being investigated in the US by the FBI.
  • Ceramic Fuel Cells (CFU) announced that the German Government has approved funding for an order of up to 200 CFU’s integrated power and heat generators from CFU’s customer EWE. CFU up 7.7%.

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