The market is down 18. The SFE Futures were down 17 this morning.

Wall St. fell 51 overnight. The Dow was up 6 at best and down 99 at worst. Housing starts and building permits coming in below expectations did most of the damage. Metals were weaker in London overnight and the oil price fell 52c to $79.09. Gold closed up 50c to $1059. The Aussie continued its solid run at 92.41 compared to 91.93c yesterday.

Making the news today…

  • BHP Billiton (BHP) down 1.1% after releasing their 1Q production numbers. All divisions performed well apart from Copper, with output being affected by the accident at its Olympic Dam site. Iron ore increased 1% yoy to a record 30.1m metric tons. There is also talk of it bidding for Potash.
  • Paladin Energy (PDN) up 5.8% on the back of strong gains in Canada overnight and news that BHP declared force majeure on uranium and copper deliveries from Olympic Damn mine. Olympic Dam accounts for 7-8% of mined uranium output.
  • Australian Pharmaceuticals (API) remains in a trading halt pending a $150m deeply discounted equity raising to pay down debt and improve the balance sheet. It also posted a 22.5% rise in FY profit. API last traded at 105.5c.
  • Marion Energy (MAE) is recapitalizing the company to strengthen the balance sheet and “drive operational strategy”. MAE down 8.3% to 16.5c.
  • Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG) said traffic increased 1.6% in the past quarter across its portfolios. MIG down 2c to 151c.
  • Perseus Mining (PRU) in a Trading Halt. Last traded at 173c.
  • Adelaide Brighton (ABC) says it expects a FY net profit of between $105m-$115m. ABC up 4% to 290c.
  • Suncorp (SUN) has made several management changes and are looking for a new chief risk officer and new chief financial officer. SUN down 3c to 939c.
  • ASIC will launch legal action against current and former directors and executives of Centro Property Group and Centro Retail Group for falsely stating around $2.1bn worth of liabilities.
  • Patersons says despite West Australian Newspapers (WAN) doubling since the end of May, it is still a Buy with a 950c target price. WAN down 4c to 789c.
  • Stocks hitting fresh yearly highs today: Breville Group (BRG) (currently bid for by GUD Holdings), fund manager BT Investment Management (BTT), Domino Pizza (DMP), Transfield Services (TSE) and National Hire Group (NHR).

The Dow Futures were down 12 at midday.

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

For a free 21-day obligation free trial of the MARCUS TODAY newsletter (and no we won’t ask for a credit card number) please START A FREE TRIAL — you will receive two daily emails about the stockmarket, our MORNING EMAIL with all the stuff you need to know ahead of the trading day ahead and a DAILY EMAIL with all the midday events, news, comments and Ideas from Marcus and his Team.

You will also be given a password to the MARCUS TODAY website including access to all the emails as well as Educational, Entertaining and Researched Articles from Marcus and his Team and an archive where you can catch up on a whole week or month in just a few minutes. Or Browse at length. We are sure you will enjoy and profit from what we offer.