I am off for a few weeks to smell the roses. Seems like the next...

I am off for a few weeks to smell the roses. Seems like the next saga starting and a good time to be away. Moffy if you can open after market lounge up to you or anyone else intrested to see it continue on. Thanks to those that supported it.

Ciao

Sydney - Monday - November 7: (RWE Aust Business News) The Australian sharemarket will be struggling to stay positive today after Wall St's Dow fell 61 points at week's end and continuing uncertainty over what's happening to Greece and Italy.

The G20 meeting heralded new layers of international surveillance and control, but failed to reveal any significant interest among non-European countries in either directly funding the EFSF, or increasing capital to the IMF for that purpose.

The US employment report was a little worse on the 80k headline numbers, but revisions made the numbers better overall.

The good news was US jobless easing back 0.1% to 9%

At home the the ASX 200 on Friday climbed 109.3 to 4281 while the All Ordinaries advanced 105 points to 4342.5 although over the week they retreaed 72.2 and 68.9 points respectively.

Currencies are still volatile although the AUD was more subdued around $US1.0376 on Friday in New York.

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The political row over QANTAS (QAN) grounding its fleet is continuing but the shares improved 4c to $1.61 compared with $1.545 a week ago.

Meanwhile the the company is spending $20 million to give out 100,000 free tickets in a bid to improve its brand name.

The unions are critical of Qantas in spending $70 million to lock out its workers.

Business believes Alan Joyce did the right thing in his confrontation with the unions whose wage claims could nave sent Qantas to the wall.

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SOUTH AMERICAN FERRO METALS (SFZ) has received a boost from substantial holders Alan Doyle, Stephen Turner and Massif Ltd topping up their holdings.

The shares have not moved much though, actually down 0.5c to 16c.

The company is the only ASX-listed pure play iron ore producer in Brazil.

Chief executive officer Philip Hopkins said the September quarter was a landmark period for the company with the achievement of full production capacity at Ponto Verde, the start of concentrator construction and the completion of the senior management team.

The company is now benefiting from a stable management team with considerable experience in the iron ore industry worldwide, enabling it to build a track record of consistent improvement in production.

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Gold explorer DRAGON MINING (DRA) saw its shares creep up 1c to $1.38 following an update of the Mineral Resource for the Juomasuo gold deposit in Finland to 1.574 million tonnes at 5.7g/t gold for 285,800 oz at a 2g/t gold cutoff.

The updated resource returned an increase in tonnes and contained ounces and closer spaced drilling has resulted in the number of ounces in the Indicated category rising to 82 per cent (up from 46 per cent of total ounces in December).

The increase results from the inclusion of 35 drill holes (10,737 metres) completed since November 2010, which were directed at confirming the geological model and testing the immediate extensions of identified zones of gold mineralisation both along strike and with depth.

Juomasuo is the largest of the five gold deposits identified to date on the Kuusamo gold project.

It comprises a set of closely spaced sub-parallel lodes, which remain open along strike towards the north and south, as well as down plunge.

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SCANDINAVIAN RESOURCES (SCR) has provided an update on exploration activities at two of its gold and base metals projects located in Finnmark, northernmost Norway.

The company's shares finished unchanged at 25c

Exploration manager Amanda Arrowsmith said that during the 2011 summer the company completed a significant amount of historical data review, field verification, mapping and surface sampling in Norway.

"This data collection and validation process has greatly enhanced our understanding of these, and other, projects within the portfolio," she said.

"The assays returned from surface sampling of bedrock at both projects are considered important because they indicate high-grade copper mineralisation exists within the project areas along with excellent silver and gold mineralisation."

High-grade copper assays were also returned from boulders and float which appear not to have travelled too far from their source.

"The most important task now is to determine if an economic source to this surface mineralisation exists within our project area; that is what we will focus on next summer," Ms Arrowsmith said.

"This is a great start and whilst it's early days it's very exciting to be chasing such high-grade precious and base metals occurrences."

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Chinese investors seems to have done a good deal in joint venturing with NAMOI COTTON (NAM).

The company has entered into a heads of agreement with China National Cotton Group Corporation (CNCGC) in relation to the proposed establishment of a 50:50 joint venture for the procurement and global marketing of Australian bale cotton.

Having regard to improved water security delivering increased crop sizes, industry participant consolidation and significant volatility in cotton marketing conditions, Namoi Cotton considers the establishment of a marketing joint venture with CNCGC to be the most efficient and effective means to deliver greater value to stakeholders.

The proposed joint venture will initially apply to the 2012 to 2017 cotton seasons.

Shares of Namoi on Friday traded at 16c, down 0.5c on the week.

CNCGC is the largest circulation enterprise administered by the China Co-operative. It is based in Beijing and ranks highly in the cotton industry of China and globally.

The establishment of the joint venture is not expected to have an impact on the way Namoi Cotton currently conducts its business.

Namoi Cotton will remain responsible for procuring Australian bale cotton from Australian growers as part of the joint venture