The market is down 12. The SFE Futures were down 4 this morning. The US market has been down five days on the trot for a 4% fall in total. Still no deal on the US debt ceiling. Cutting it fine. They have until Tuesday to do a deal and legislate.

The Dow Jones closed 62 overnight. Dow up 82 at best and down 76 at worst. For the first time since the week ending March, initial unemployment claims fell back below 400,000 and pending home sales rose 2.4% in June, much better than the 3% fall economists expected. The gold price fell for a 2nd straight day after reaching new record highs — down $1.70 to $1613.40 and the oil price increased slightly — up 4c to $97.44. US 2nd Q GDP estimate out tonight — expecting a YonY number of +1.70% down from +1.90%. The Aussie dollar fell slightly below 110.04c from 110.22c.

In the news today … bit thin.

  • Westfield Group (WDC) has agreed commercial terms for a JV on retail space at New York’s World Trade Center site. WDC down 5c to 800c.
  • Austar United (AUN) said they are confident that they will be bought by Foxtel despite the ACCC’s decision. AUN up 0.5c to 106.5c.
  • Downer EDI (DOW) has signed an IT Managed Services Agreement with Hewlett Packard to provide DOW with all their IT needs. DOW down 4c to 386c.
  • OneSteel (OST) says its Whyalla blast furnace has returned to normal operations following maintenance and modification work which will extend its design life beyond 2020. The work cost around $65m. OST down 1.4% to 176.5c.
  • MAp Group (MAP)- Brussels Airport results – EBITDA was €104.7m in the half year to 30 June 2011, which is up 14.8% over the pcp. MAP down 1c to 323c.
  • OceanaGold (OGC) down 15.3% first thing after disappointing second quarter results.
  • Murchison Metals (MMX) has outlined the options for its Oakajee development and Jack Hills iron ore project in its quarterly activities report. They said a “range of options are being considered, including the potential for transactions at the asset and/or corporate level. A data room has been established, and Murchison continues to advance discussions with interested parties”. MMX up 4.5% to 80c.
  • Macquarie Group (MQG) down another 1.9% to 2745c after falling 5% yesterday on the back of their disappointing trading update. Their target price was cut by five brokers this morning.
  • Wesfarmers (WES) down 4c to 2933c — their target price was cut by a few brokers this morning following sales numbers yesterday.
  • Total private sector credit fell 0.1% in June, compared to a 0.4% rise expected.

NO-ONE KNOWS –  If you remember in the last GFC one of the abiding lessons was that if all the kings and queens, Presidents and Heads of State, the Central Banks, Banks, Investment Banks, Regulators, CEO’s, Brokers, Fund Managers, Financial Planners, Accountants, Investors and even the taxi drivers didn’t know there was going to be a global financial crisis then no-one knew. And no-one knows now. Well almost no-one. In fact there was someone  who predicted the global financial crisis – Karl Marx in 1878 with the statement  that the citizens would “gorge on debt and the State would have to rescue them and take custody of all assets.” Apparently he went short Dow Jones Futures in 1878. He was wiped out in 1879. Which brings us to the last lesson from the last global financial crisis….timing is everything.

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t on the border of the Republics of Congo and Cameroon will likely improve as a result of drilling at the site. SDL up 0.5c to 52.5c.