The market is down 1. The SFE Futures were up 9 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 13 overnight. The Dow was up 19 at best and down 42 at worst. The big news overnight was Moody’s downgrading Portugal from its investment grade Baa1 rating to Ba2 (junk). They believe the country won’t meet targets to reduce its deficit due to the “formidable challenges” it is facing in cutting spending. Moody also put Chinese banks on watch quoting $540m of unaccounted for bad loans. On the back of that Gold put on $30.10 to $1512.70 and the oil price increased $1.95 to $96.89. Metals were mostly up on the LME and the Aussie dollar fell slightly to 106.88c from 107.38c after a Dovish RBA statement yesterday.

In the news today…it has been a quiet day.

  • OneSteel and Bluescope Steel up 5.18% and 5.36% this morning continuing a one week rally. No specific story. One suggestion is that the carbon tax won’t be as bad as expected.
  • Telstra (TLS) will make a series of structural changes as part of their restructure and long-term business plan. TLS up 1c to 295c.
  • Beach Energy (BPT) announced they have committed to an aggressive exploration campaign. It will require capital investment of $24m.  BPT down 1c to 89c.
  • Clough (CLO) has confirmed they are in talks with Malaysian company SapuraCrest about the possible sale of their loss-making marine construction business. CLO up 0.5c to 73c.
  • Minara Resources (MRE) says production from their Murrin Murrin mine and plant has been suspended after the failure of a heat exchange last week. MRE down 3.2% to 74c.
  • Industrea (IDL) announced they have finished FY2011 strongly announcing $22m in China diesel equipment contracts. IDL down 1c to 134c.
  • Ramelius Resources (RMS) have announced production in the year to June 30 of just over 100,000 ounces of gold from its Wattle Dam gold mine in WA. RMS up 7% to 131.5c.
  • Gryphon Minerals (GRY) has announced positive drilling results from its flagship Banfora Gold Project in Burkina Faso, West Africa. GRY up 6% to 189c.
  • Macquarie Group (MQG) down another 1% to 3082c after GSJB Were downgraded their earnings expectations and cut their target price to $37 from $41. UBS cut their target price yesterday.
  • Most economists agree following the RBA’s interest rate decision and statement that rates will remain on Hold next month as well with 17 of 26 Australian economists expecting a rate hike in August, with the remainder expecting at least one hike by year-end. Around 15 are forecasting multiple hikes over that time frame.

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