The market is down 16. The SFE Futures were down 34 this morning.

Dow Jones down 138 — was down 182 at worst. All US markets were down over 1% on more bad news from Europe. The EU Summit set for this week looks to have lost its import as the Greek Finance minister resigns before he is appointed on health issues with speculation that he is uncomfortable with the New Democracy’s policies — his health issues existed before the election. The Greek PM will also miss the summit after eye surgery. Moody’s downgrades 28 Spanish banks. Cyprus has announced that they need around €2b by the end of the month to recapitalise their second largest bank, Cyprus Popular Bank. Spain formally requested their bank bailout money of €100bn. Metals were mixed on the LME with Zinc up 0.52%, Copper up 0.39%, Lead down 1.58% and Nickel down 0.94%$. Oil is down 54c to $79.22. Gold is up $18.60 to $1585. BHP and RIO ADRs were both down 3.21% and 3.95%. The A$ has been below parity and is now at 100.10c.

Main points:

  • Fairfax Media (FXJ) — Gina Rinehart has threatened to dump her 18.7% stake if she doesn’t get her board seats without conditions. FXJ is down 5.26% to 54c.
  • A management shuffle at Seven West Media has the stock down 9.6% on concerns about debt covenants, a capital raising and deck clearing with Woodside’s ex CEO Don Voelte at the helm. They confirmed recent earnings guidance.  SWM is down 10% to 176c.
  • Billabong (BBG) — Some mild (old) bid speculation as the founder Gordon Merchant expresses remorse at not accepting TPG’s takeover offer of 330c a share in February. BBG shares are at an all time low. BBG is up 4.17% to 100c.
  • Ten Network Holdings (TEN) — Gina Rinehart has also increased her holdings to 10.6%. She bought 39.2m shares for $19.99m at 51c. TEN is down 0.97% to 51c.
  • Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) — Andrew Forrest bought an additional 1.9% stake in the company to take his total holdings to 33%. FMG is down 0.1% to 484.5c.
  • Consolidated Media Holdings (CMJ) — analysts believe Kerry Stokes’ move to launch a takeover bid for CMJ was “serious but unlikely to succeed”. Seven has some $1.8bn in debt. CMJ is unchanged on 340c.
  • Whitehaven Coal (WHC) – The press speculates that Nathan Tinkler is close to finalising a takeover deal at 500c per share. Other talk that as a 21.4% shareholder he is not a real bidder and is instead trying to flush out a real (Chinese?) bidder. WHC is up 5.46% to 425c.
  • Echo will use the proceeds of its $454m capital raising to reduce bank debt after reaching agreements with US note holders. EGP is up 0.95% to 423c.
  • PaperlinX (PPX) has announced a profit downgrade and now expects to post a $171m loss up from a $108m loss last year. They have also announced asset sales. PPX is up 1.52% to 6.7c.
  • NIB Holdings Limited (NHF) says their FY profit will come in at the lower of a $65m to $70m range. NHF down 2.5c to 144.5c.
  • Death Cross — The 50-day moving average has crossed below the 200-day moving average on the ASX 200 forming what is rather (over) dramatically known as the Death Cross. A sell signal.

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