The market is down 37. The SFE Futures were down 46 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 258 overnight. Dow up 66 at best down 260 at worst. The S&P 500 fell 2.9% to a 13 month low. It fell below its previous low for the year of 1,119 and closed at 1,099. It is now down 9.6% from its September high and is down 19.4% from its 2011 high in April. Greece admitted that it would miss its fiscal deficit target this year and next, despite its severe austerity measures. Metals were mixed, Gold put on $39 to $1661.30 and the oil price fell $1.59 to $77.61 The Aussie dollar fell to 95.26c.

Today’s main stories…

  • The RBA will decide on Interest Rates this afternoon with the announcement due at 2:30pm. The general consensus amongst economists is that rates will remain unchanged.
  • The board of Sundance Resources (SDL) has recommended a takeover bid from Hanlong Mining, after the Chinese group upped its offer to 57¢ per share from 50¢, valuing SDL at around $1.65 billion. Chairman George Jones said, “after careful consideration, the Sundance board has unanimously concluded that the offer represents an attractive price and provides shareholders with an opportunity to realise considerable value from their investment in Sundance”. SDL up 8.1% to 47¢.
  • The AFR report that Seven West Media (SWM) has called in management consultants to reduce cut costs as it moves to maintain profit margins in a weak advertising environment. Consultancy group KKR Capstone is said to have been hired by chairman Kerry Stokes as part of the group’s “transformational whole-of-business-review” announced earlier this year. SWM up 3¢ to 253¢.
  • Industrea (IDL) has extended a contract with Rio Tinto (RIO) to February 2014 for the hire, service and support of equipment. The extension was expected to generate revenue of about $100 million up to 2014, Industrea said. IDL down 2.1%.
  • Lend Lease (LLC) has sold additional Public Private Partnership assets to the Lend Lease UK Infrastructure Fund for around $47m. LLC down 3.3%.
  • Downer EDI (DOW) has been awarded a $142m contract to carry out electronic work on a resource project in the Pilbara region. DOW has around $20bn worth of work in hand, with $7.5bn in mining, $5.2bn in rail, $5.2bn in works and $2.2bn in engineering. DOW down 2.9%.
  • Australian residential building approvals increased 11.4% to 13,800 units in August to 13,800 units in August in seasonally adjusted terms.
  • Australia’s trade surplus increased in August, coming in at $3.1bn in August, seasonally adjusted, this compares to a downwardly adjusted surplus of $1.817bn in July.
  • Stocks going ex dividend today include: David Jones (DJS — 15c), Premiership Investment (PMV — 18c). DJS down 18¢, PMV down 30¢.

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