Market skips over US preoccupations

The sharemarket closed higher, recovering from earlier falls as investors marked time ahead of the release of important job figures in the US tonight.
The benchmark ASX 200 index rose 23.4 points to 5120.3 while the All Ordinaries rose 23.8 points to 5078.1.
The bourse managed to recover from earlier losses, which were spurred on by concerns on Wall Street that job market strength may persuade the US Federal Reserve to keep raising interest rates.
"The Australian sharemarket had a spell of tentativeness for an hour or so today and then that sort of dissipated to be on the positive side," Bell Potter senior adviser Stuart Smith said.
The market's early decline came after US stocks weakened further amid worries about North Korea's test firing of missiles. The Dow Jones index fell 76.20 points to 11,151.82.
Coalminers were in demand after Excel Coal accepted a friendly takeover bid from America's Peabody Energy Corp for $1.83 billion in cash, or $8.50 a share. Excel rose 28c to $8.68.
Fat Prophets senior resources analyst Gavin Wendt said the NSW miner should have been able to push the bidding price up to $2 higher.
"This is a tremendously low offer and given the growth prospects of the resource sector I would have thought shareholders would be demanding a price well above current levels," he said.
Centennial Coal rose 30c to $3.51 while Macarthur Coal added 38c to $5.21.
Rio Tinto rose 19c to $77.59 while BHP Billiton was steady at $28.80. Woodside Petroleum rose 14c to $45.59, Santos gained 8c to $12.34 and Oil Search rose 5c to $4.13.
Commonwealth Bank added 32c to $45.35, ANZ was steady at $26.78, NAB climbed 31c to $36.02 and Westpac rose 16c to $23.28.
Macquarie Bank fell $1.37 to $67.34 after it agreed to buy US utility Duquesne Light Holdings for $US1.59 billion ($2.14 billion), expanding its infrastructure interests in the US.
"It has rallied 10 per cent or so in the last month. There will be quite a few hedge funds trading the volatility of that stock at the moment," ABN Amro Morgans adviser Kylie Macdonald said.
Shares in Wattyl sank to a low of $2.78 before closing 24c weaker at $3.01 after the competition regulator blocked a proposed takeover by Barloworld.
A disappointed Barloworld chief executive Tony Phillips said the company would now restructure its Australian operations.
Macquarie Office Trust, down 0.5c to $1.36, said it had revalued 14 of its Australian and US assets by $187 million, 12.6 per cent higher.
Qantas rose 3c to $3.12 despite ratings agency Moody's Investors Service saying the airline faced a tough operating environment over the next few years and possibly lower profit growth.
Qantas also signed a code-share agreement with Mexican airline Mexicana in a bid to expand further into the Americas. Rival Virgin Blue rose 3c to $1.58.
Telstra was steady at $3.75 while Optus parent Singapore Telecom rose 2c to $2.17.
In the gold sector, Newcrest Mining rose 45c to $22.20 while Newmont fell 4c to $7.50.