The market is down 64. The SFE Futures were down 67 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 197 overnight. After a three day rally the Dow closed down 197 points and was down 230 at worst. The S&P 500 is now 1% below its 200-day moving average. The index hasn’t closed above that level since November 8, a day before its 3.7% one-day drop. The ECB have played down expectations that said they will ramp up their bond buying program a ahead of a EU summit of euro zone leaders. But they have cut the euro area’s benchmark interest rate to a record low 1%, starting from December 14. They offered 3-year financing for banks and have eased rules on the collateral required from banks seeking funds. Initial Jobless claims came in better than expected — claims fell to 381,000 for the week ending December 2 from 404,000 a week earlier. That is the lowest level since the last week of February. The oil price fell $2.47 to $98.02 and Gold fell $32.20 to $1712.60. The Aussie dollar fell to 101.70c from 102.92c. Metals were mostly down on the LME.

Main points:

  • Ten Network (TEN) has held their AGM today. They say the current operating environment is tough with consumer sentiment soft and the advertising market “very” soft. Chairman Brian Long said, “We expect these difficult conditions to continue, certainly in the near term, and while we are optimistic about the future, revenue success will be largely influenced by consumer confidence”. TEN up 0.5c to 92.5c.
  • AMP Ltd (AMP) up 3% to 444c after AMP owned fund manager AMP Capital Investors formed an alliance with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Group that will se Mitsubishi pay $425m for a 15% stake in AMP Capital Holdings.
  • Alacer Gold (AQG) down 2% to 1141c a subsidiary of Turkish conglomerate Calik Holding will buy a 15% stake in AQG’s Copler project for US$37.8m by exercising a call option.
  • Transurban (TCL) has refinanced $375m of debt maturing in August 2012 with a new bank facility. The new facility was in two tranches, with $215 million maturing in February 2015 and $160m maturing in February 2017. TCL down 9.5c to 553.5c.
  • Bandanna (BND) has appointed Michael Gray as their new CEO. BND up 0.5c to 55c.
  • Extract Resources (EXT) say their independent directors will review the terms of a proposed bid that would be triggered by a successful takeover of their largest shareholder, Kalahari Minerals by two Chinese groups. EXT up 5% to 847c.
  • Samson Oil & Gas (SSN) up 7% after providing an operations update.
  • Metcash (MTS) has gone 11.5c ex dividend today. As has Troy Resources (TRY) – 6c.

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