The market has done well this morning compared to Wall St and despite the 142 point rally yesterday - up 42 this morning. The SFE Futures suggested a 21 point rise in the market this morning reflecting a better performance from commodities overnight and a small drop in financials.

Dow Jones down 49 after 3 days in positive territory. It was up 42 at its highest and down 99 early in the session after Bernanke's comments about a possible recession. Volumes were much lower than in the rally yesterday. Bernanke told Congress that 1H might result in a "slight contraction". See separate page for more – main points – bonds hardly moved suggesting the testimony had little impact on the outlook for interest rates – he talked about the Bear Stearns collapse – it is clear the Fed couldn't allow them to collapse and are unlikely to let anyone else collapse – the Fed in other words have underwritten the survival of financial institutions.

The International Monetary Fund has cut its forecast for global growth this year and said there's a 25 percent chance of a world recession. The White House said their forecasts were "over blown". In economic news, ADP Employment Report better than expected - reported a gain of 8000 private sector jobs in March, better than the expected loss of 45,000. February's figures were also revised down from 23,000 to only 18,000 payrolls lost, and February factory orders came in worse than expected down 1.3% but not a big market factor. US Bonds down with the 10 year yield up to 3.59% from 3.55%.

Both BHP and RIO up in ADR form overnight, 1.37% and 2.28% respectively. BHP up 3% to 3782c and RIO up 339c to 12870c.

Metals mixed overnight – Copper up 2.4%, Zinc up 1.5%, Nickel down 3.5% and Aluminium down 0.9%. Zinifex up 17c to 937c. Oil price up $3.91 to $104.83 after the Energy Information Administration inventories fell by 4.5m barrels last week, twice the drop expected by analysts. Barclays Capital says the oil price could easily reach $US135 a barrel in the next 18 months. Woodside up 132c to 5613c. Gold up $12.30 to $895.20. Newcrest up 110c to 3318c, Lihir Gold up 11c to 348c and Pan Australia down 1c to 97c.