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Market:	ASX
Sector:	General Mining
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Dow rises as economic data surprises; Allstate, Electronic Arts, Green Mountain Coffee in focus

Thursday, February 02, 2012 by Proactive Investors

The ASX has some positive leads to follow when the market opens in a couple of hours, with the U.S. bourses rallying on some improved economic data. Spot gold has also firmed to around US$1750 an ounce.

U.S. jumped higher overnight thanks to a raft of improved economic data that pleased investors. By the close the Dow Jones had added 84 points to 12,717, with the NASDAQ leaping 34 points to 2848.

Separate reports showed manufacturing activity picked up in China, Germany, France and the United Kingdom in January.

The ISM, a purchasing managers group, said its US manufacturing index for January rose to 54.1 from 53.1 in December. The index was expected to stand at 54.5, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

In corporate news, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) shares surged 5% after press reports claimed that social networking service Facebook had picked the securities firm to lead its planned IPO.

An offering document is expected to be released later Wednesday. Facebook has yet to decide on which US market its shares will be listed but has already chosen "FB" as its ticker symbol, sources said.

After the closing bell Wednesday, earnings are due from insurer Allstate (NYSE:ALL), video games publisher Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) and Green Mountain Coffee (NASDAQ:GMCR), maker of the Keurig coffee machine.

NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) nixed its $9 billion merger agreement with Deutsche Boerse following rejection of the deal from European officials.

As a sweetner to investors, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange would return $550 million to shareholders and seek to grow its derivatives business.

Appliance maker Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) posted fourth-quarter earnings that were below Wall Street expectations.
For the three months ended December 31, the maker of home appliances posted adjusted earnings of $0.32 per share, well below analysts' $1.96 estimate.

Revenues during the fourth quarter were $4.9 billion, down two percent from $5.0 billion in the prior year. Analysts had expected $4.98 billion in sales.

Communications chip maker Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM) said late Tuesday that fourth-quarter net income fell nearly four percent but its profit beat expectations.

The company said that net income for the three months that ended December 31 totaled $254 million, or 45 cents per share. That compares with $266 million, or 47 cents per share, earned in the same quarter last year.

Excluding items, net income totaled 68 cents per share, versus 83 cents per share in the prior period.

Analysts expected net income of 64 cents per share in the latest quarter, according to FactSet.

Revenue fell six percent to $1.82 billion from $1.95 billion last year due to weaker product revenue. Analysts forecast $1.81 billion.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) also late Tuesday reported a 58% drop in quarterly profit, as the online retail giant pushes ahead with heavy spending and a dramatic expansion at the expense of margins.

Amazon said net income for the fourth quarter that ended December 31 fell to $177 million, or 38 cents per share, from $416 million, or 91 cents per share a year earlier. Revenue rose 35% to $17.43 billion.

Wall Street analysts had expected Amazon to report earnings of 17 cents per share for the quarter - which includes the important holiday-shopping season - and $18.25 billion in revenue.

On the economic front, employment in the private sector is improving at a moderate pace, with two years of job gains now on the books, according to a monthly labor-market report released by payrolls-processor ADP.

Nonfarm private employment rose 170,000 in January, marking the 24th consecutive month of gains, led by small businesses and the service-providing sector. In December, private employment rose 292,000, compared with a prior estimate of 325,000.

Commodities

In NYMEX futures trading, crude for March delivery fell 22 cents to $98.26 a barrel while gold futures for April delivery rose $8.60 to $1,749.00 an ounce.

Europe

European stocks closed higher with the FTSE 100 adding 1.8%, the DAX gaining 2.5% and the CAC 40 2% higher.

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