Elders Limited

Agribusiness Elders Limited (ASX:ELD) said negotiations for the calendar year 2010 benchmark price for Australian plantation grown Tasmanian bluegum woodchip for export to Japan have concluded with agreement that existing prices be maintained.

iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF), Australia's largest listed health information technology company today announced the appointment of Dr. James (Jim) Fox as Deputy Chairman. This decision affirms the Board's commitment to the continual process of review and development of the Company's overall corporate governance position and the composition of the Board.

Overnight US stocks ended at a fresh 13-month high ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, helped by a series of upbeat economic data. A report showed initial claims for US jobless insurance benefits plunged to their lowest levels since September last year. US incomes rose 0.2 per cent and consumer spending jumped 0.7 per cent in October. New home sales rose 6.2 per cent unexpectedly.

On Friday, the US stocks were boosted by the encouraging earnings from major retailers and The Walt Disney Co. A record number of U.S. companies beat earnings expectations in the third quarter. This week a new round of economic data including retail sales, inflation readings and housing starts will be the focus after most corporate results already reported.

Overnight the US stocks closed higher on the positive Alcoa earnings and better-than-expected weekly jobless claims and consumer spending. Investors were also encouraged by the US retailers' first same-store sales gains in more than a year.

Wall Street was higher on Friday as a government report showed that the pace of job losses slowed in August. But the US stocks were still in negative territory for the week with the worst performance since early July.

Overnight Wall Street fell following a massive sell-off in Chinese shares, which plunged 6.7 per cent on Monday. The Shanghai Composite index has lost more than 20% of its value in one month.

US stocks were lower Friday over consumer data. Commerce Department said that consumer spending rose mildly in July, while personal income was unchanged. The downbeat data of US consumer sentiment also weighed on the market.

US stocks broadly surged on Thursday fueled by the better-than-expected earnings reports. The market's rally pushed the major indexes to their highest closes of the year.

Wall Street ended modestly lower overnight after the Shanghai stock market slumped 5 per cent, a biggest single day decline of the year in China. The US stocks were also hit by the Commerce Department data that new orders for US manufactured durable goods fell 2.5 per cent in June.