The market is down 56. The SFE Futures were down 6 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 17 overnight after rising by 330 in the prior session. After hours Slovakia’s parliament rejected a plan to expand the euro zone’s EFSF rescue fund. ECB President Trichet said the euro zone debt crisis had become systemic and could threaten global economic stability. The troika (EU, ECB, IMF) said Greece has made “important progress” in fiscal consolidation, suggesting they will still get the next €8bn instalment of the current bailout early in November. Metals were mostly down on the LME. The gold price fell $7.30 to $1663.50. The oil price fell 24¢ to $85.17. The Aussie Dollar down to 99.20¢ from 100.04¢.

  • Tabcorp (TAH) said its revenue in the September quarter rose 2.7% – it was $759.4m, up from $739.7m in the previous corresponding period. Performance was improved across all four of the company’s divisions. TAH up 3.5%.
  • Alumina (AWC) down 4.4% after Alcoa reported 3Q earnings in the US that fell short of expectations as the aluminum price fell on global economic worries.
  • JB Hi-Fi (JBH) held its AGM this morning. CEO Terry Smart said that trading conditions remained challenging in the first quarter with comparable-store sales down 3.5%, but he said they are well positioned to take advantage of the Christmas period. The company is targeting 13-15 new sites annually for the next four to five years. JBH up 8c to 1395c.
  • Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) said they will attempt to raise $500m, or almost the same as their current market value, through a discounted share issue to help fund an expansion of its Ranger mine. ERA, which is controlled by Rio Tinto (RIO), said they will offer new shares to institutional and retail investors at 153¢, or a 53% discount to their last traded price of 329¢. RIO will take up the offer. ERA also reported that its quarterly production was up 11% from Q3 2011 and up significantly from the 2nd quarter during which operations were limited to 15 days due to wet conditions. ERA is in a trading halt – last traded at 329¢.
  • § Transurban (TCL) has reported that first quarter proportional toll revenue was up 8%. They said that the M2 project is about 35% complete. TCL down 2.35%.
  • The Westpac and Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index rose 0.4% to 97.2 in October, after an 8.1% jump in September. Optimism about the economic outlook was balanced somewhat by caution on making major purchases. The index was still down 16.9% on October 2010.
  • The number of home loans approved in August rose 1.2%, better than economist expectations for a 1.0% rise. Total housing finance by value rose 1.0% in the month.

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