Energy

After several days of rally, Wall Street took profits last night as an historic new administration was ushered in. The Dow fell 486 points.

As the longest election campaign in history comes to a close Wall Street has wasted no time in expressing relief. Last night the Dow gained 300 points and commodity prices surged.

Higher oil prices not the credit crisis caused the global economic downturn, so with oil pulling back, a recovery should now be in the making.

Caltex says that current year earnings will be hurt by the rapid fall in the Australian dollar, but a weaker currency is a longer-term positive.

It all started with a surprise bid for Origin Energy in May, and despite global recession and collapsing commodity prices the great gas rush is still very much on.

The Dow did not move triple digits in either direction last night as Wall Street awaits the election outcome. It closed down a mere 5 points.

Equity markets closed higher at the end of what has been one of their best weeks ever. The same cannot be said for metals.

AGL Energy has sold its PNG assets and the implied valuation suggests significant upside for Oil Search’s PNG LNG holdings.

The US third quarter GDP was not as bad as expected allowing the Dow to gain 190 points.

While WorleyParsons looks set for FY09, brokers are mixed in their views of the earnings outlook beyond this year.