The market is down 36. The SFE Futures were down 65 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 249 overnight. Dow down 342 at worst. The S&P 500 was down for a fourth straight day — its longest drop since September. It fell through a support level at 1200 and was struggling to hold near its next support level at 1187.

A U.S. congressional super-committee was unable to come to an agreement after three months of talks to reduce the budget deficit and extend stimulus measures into next year. Moody’s said the rise in interest rates on French government debt and weaker economic growth prospects could be negative for France’s credit rating. Metals were mostly down overnight on the LME, the Gold price took another hit, down $43.70 to $1681.40 and the oil price fell 56c to $9.11. The Aussie dollar fell to 98.56c from 99.81c.

Main points:

  • BlueScope Steel (BSL) are in a trading halt after announcing they will sell $600m worth of shares at a 34% discount to the current share price to pay down debt. It is a fully underwritten 4-for-5 accelerated renounceable entitlement offer at an offer price of 40c. Their share closed at 61c yesterday.
  • Qantas Airways (QAN) CEO Alan Joyce said going to the independent umpire to resolve their dispute with the union is the best move given there was very little prospect of a resolution taking place. QAN down 3c to 161c.
  • All Centro companies have gone into a trading halt this morning ahead of security holders voting on a proposed merger of Centro Properties Group with Centro Retail Trust at an EGM today. Centro Property Group has $2.9bn in debt that matures on Dec 15.
  • Thorn Group (TGA) reported a 30% rise in first half net profit.  It rose to $14.3m from $11m a year earlier. They said the rise in profit was due to its ability to perform under challenging market conditions while demonstrating the strength of its long-term recurring revenue streams. TGA up 5c to 168c.
  • The National Australia Bank (NAB) has announced their first branch in China. It will be located in the Lujiazui Financial Centre in Shanghai. NAB down 39c to 2281c.
  • Rio Tinto (RIO) has upped their takeover offer for Hathor Exploration to 470c a share Canadian after the Hathor board reaffirmed their support for the bid. RIO down 2.7% to 6407c.
  • Beach Petroleum (BPT) announced their Tantanna Pipeline is online 2 months ahead of schedule. BPT up 1% to 141c.
  • Warren Buffett told CNBC last night that he doubts the Euro will survive in its current format. He said leaders will have to take urgent action if they want the euro to survive.
  • Stocks going ex dividend today: Octanex (OXX – 4c) and The Trust Group (TRU – 17c),

For a free 5 day obligation FREE TRIAL of the MARCUS TODAY newsletter Click Here. You will receive our renowned and popular Daily email about the stockmarket with all the stuff you need to know ahead of the trading day including:

  • Overnight developments, news, comments, rumours, broker recommendations and ideas from Marcus and his Team.
  • Our Recommended Portfolio which is actively managed on behalf of subscribers … no “set & forget”. Everything you need to effortlessly managed your own long term investment portfolio. It includes Income Portfolio recommendations.
  • Daily Technical Trading ideas and data, including daily scans of the ASX 300 for stocks changing trend.
  • Stock Database – all the numbers with comments on the top 300 stocks and more.
  • Educational section – Marcus’s Educational and Entertaining articles.

We also offer a FREE END OF DAY EMAIL —  Click here —  A free summary of the day in the market.

Subscribe to MARCUS TODAY —  Click Here. We are sure you will enjoy and profit from what we offer…we have one of the highest re-subscription rates in the financial newsletter industry.