The market is down 8. The SFE Futures were down 13 this morning.

Wall St. closed down 52 overnight. The Dow was up 1 at best and down 86 at worst. The big news overnight was Portugal’s credit rating getting lowered. Both oil and gold fell 1.45% and 1.38% respectively. Metals were mainly down and the Aussie dollar fell to 90.77c from 91.90c from yesterday morning.

In other news today…

  • TALK OF A TAKEOVER BID FOR SANTOS — Sydney Morning Herald says there are strong rumours circulating that Woodside (WPL) is set to launch a $15bn bid for Santos (STO). STO up 3.41% to 1486c. WPL down 46c to 4696c.
  • AXA’s parent company AXA SA says they are confident that a deal can be reached with the National Australia Bank (NAB) by the March 29 deadline. The NAB is offering AXA $13.3bn and is hoping to sell AXA’s Asian operations to AXA SA with price being the issue. Even if they come to an agreement, uncertainty will remain until the ACCC release their ruling on April 22. If unfavourable, AMP will enter the picture again. AXA up 1c to 634c, NAB up 15c to 2751c, AMP down 7c to 628c.
  • Crown (CWN) will spent $212m to significantly expand and upgrade their VIP facilities at Crown, Melbourne. The initiative is expected to create 200 new jobs. The market doesn’t seem to like the idea – CWN down 2.62% to 817c.
  • Brickworks (BKW) announced a 65% fall in 1H net profit to $88.2m but expect a “solid” FY result due to lower interest expenses. They say their Building Products division has improved “due to the initial signs of recovery that are already evident in the housing market”. BKW up 4c to 1264c.
  • Aquila Resources (AQA) announced a pre-feasibility study indicated that the proposed Belvedere hard coking coal project in QLD will cost around $2.81bn to build. AQA down 2% 1076c.
  • Western Areas (WSA) – Trading Halt before their convertible bond issue. WSA last traded at 528c.
  • One broker has upped their iron ore forecasts by as much as 90% for 2010, up 60% compared to last year.
  • Brambles (BXB) has priced a US$750m bond issue in the US private placement. BXB down 5c to 738c.
  • RBA assistant governor, Philip Lowe, says interest rates in Australia will likely need to continue to move towards normal levels.
  • Companies hitting fresh 52 week highs today include: Automotive Holdings (AHE), Ausdrill (ASL), Cochlear (COH), Iluka Resources (ILU), News Corp (NWS), REA Group (REA) and Ramsay Healthcare (RHC).

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