Weekly Market Outlook

Friday’s overnight session in the US capped off a choppy week. The Dow closed up 9 points at 10,850, while the Nasdaq closed slightly down, dropping 2 points to finish at 2,395.

After starting Friday on a positive note, equities gave up their early gains in a sharp late-morning pullback. Headlines regarding a sunken South Korean naval ship stoked the idea of increased tensions between South and North Korea, and most likely contributed to some risk-paring, but it is still not clear if North Korea was involved in the sinking of the South Korean vessel and naval skirmishes between the two countries are not uncommon. Other than headlines on the Korean situation, intraday news flow was relatively light and volume was below average.

Before the open, revisions to Q4 GDP were slightly worse than expected, but didn't impact the pre-market trading picture. A better-than-expected revision to the March University of Michigan Confidence reading helped boost equities, but the move was short-lived and no follow-through materialized. Friday’s action followed mixed trading overseas, with strength in Asia being offset by modestly weaker performance in major European markets. Notably, Greece's ASE Index rose 5.6% on the EU debt backstop.

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Emerging private hospital provider, Pulse Health Limited (ASX: PHG), today announced details of an aggressive growth strategy over the next 12 months including plans for organic growth, greenfield and brownfield developments in central New South Wales and Queensland, and selected acquisitions.

The Sydney-based Company is currently performing due diligence on three potential private hospital acquisitions along the eastern seaboard.

The Company also announced a raft of improvements made to the business following the appointment of Dr Ian Kadish as Chief Executive Officer in November last year including a 30% year on year increase in revenue from $13.3 million to $17.3 million in the six months to 30 December 2009, 328% EBITDA increase of $917,000 over the same period from $279,000 to $1.196 million $3.2 million reduction in interest-bearing debt and renegotiation of the Company’s banking facility with the NAB on more favourable terms.

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