The market is down 12. The SFE Futures were down 28 this morning.

Wall St. closed down 81. Dow up 88 at best down 89 at worst. The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and said they would keep them that way “for an extended period”. Metals closed lower on the LME, the Oil price fell $2.85 to $68.70 and Gold also fell $1.10 to $1014. The Aussie dollar fell to 86.84c versus 87.36c yesterday morning.

Making the news today…

  • David Jones (DJS) has announced a slightly better than expected FY profit result this morning. FY profit came in at $156.5m, up 6.2%. Revenue down 5.3% to $1.99bn and it declared a final dividend of 17c, up from 16c last year. They maintained their guidance for fiscal 2010 of between 0%-5% earnings growth. The market may have expected an upgrade because the stock is down 20c to 546c.
  • TEN NETWORK IN TRADING HALT — CanWest has decided to sell its 50.06% stake in Ten Network (TEN) after struggling with $4bn worth of debt on its balance sheet. Ten shares will remain in a trading halt until the sell down takes place. TEN last traded at 136.5c.
  • GrainCorp (GNC) plans to lodge with ACCC a revised undertaking that will cover other grain exporters having access to its port export terminals. GNC down 13c to 842c.
  • Mount Gibson Iron (MGX) ensures shareholders that the sale by Shougang Concord of its stake in the miner to Fushan International Energy will have no impact on existing offtake agreements. MGX down 2c to 115c.
  • Suncorp-Metway (SUN) is in talks to sell its LJ Hooker real estate agency to Janusz Hooker, the founders grandson. SUN up 7c to 832c.
  • Macquarie Airports’ (MAP) internalisation deal with Macquarie Group (MQG) has hit a brick wall with two investors preparing to seek an injunction to stop the scheme meeting next week. One of those is Mike Fitzpatrick’s led Global Airports, which made an alternative internalisation deal. MAP down 1c to 276c.
  • Karoon Gas (KAR) has requested a trading halt. It last traded at 1015c.
  • CSR Ltd (CSR) says it remains on track with plans to demerge its building products division from its sugar and renewable energy business.
  • Mark Faber, aka Dr Doom, predicts the S&P 500 will be at 1250 in a year. The S&P 500 is now at 1061.
  • Street Talk say it’s about time APA Group (APA) bought the remaining 70% of Envestra (ENV) that it doesn’t already own and complete what is one of the most obvious mergers.
  • Some of the stocks hitting fresh yearly highs: ARB Corp (ARP), Bell Financial Group (BFG), Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Cochlear (COH), James Hardie (JHX) and Servcorp (SRV).

The Dow Futures were up 8 at 11:30am.

MARCUS PADLEY is the author of the MARCUS TODAY Daily Stockmarket Newsletter.

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