The market is down 9. SFE Futures were down 9 this morning.

US markets down 52. The Dow was down 55 at worst and up 17 at best. There is uncertainty in the US ahead of Germany’s constitutional court ruling on Wednesday and the FOMC meeting on Thursday (possible QE3 stimulus). There are rumours that the possible QE3 will be aimed at Mortgage backed securities (MBS). Assistance in the MBS market will enable US banks to free up some cash and strengthen up credit markets.

Volumes were light at around 5.56bn shares on the NYSE, which is below the 2011 daily average of 7.84bn. Markets lost ground in the final hour of trade after the Fed reported that consumer credit fell in July after 10 months of gains, raising concerns about consumer confidence and unemployment levels. Other factors included some unsettling news that Greece is struggling to find spending cuts needed to meet bailout conditions — the EU is still waiting on the Troika audit of Greek finances this month before making a decision on whether to agree to an extension of their bailout terms. 

Dutch elections on this week (Wednesday night) are also causing some concerns — some of the parties are campaigning on the basis that they inject no more money into the ESM. US consumer credit was down by $3.28bn for July, and below forecasts for a $9.1bn increase. Revolving credit (which includes credit cards) fell for the second consecutive month, it was down by $4.82bn. 

Metals up — Copper up 1.20%, Nickel up 1.68%, Aluminium up 1.97% and Zinc up 2.22%.  The iron ore price jumped 7% to $95/ton — biggest one day jump since 2008 but stocks not responding today.

German Court Decision tomorrow night — should allow the ESM through — if not it would shock the market a bit and they would move to a referendum in Germany which would be very interesting.

  • We have released our IT Services and Telecommunications post results report today. IIN and UXC are Patersons preferred two stocks and we have downgraded ASZ, MTU and SMX to a HOLD recommendation.
  • Kien Trinh has released his weekly Momentum Monitor – This highly regarded Quant report looks at the trends in markets and stocks over the last week.
  • The NAB Business survey showed business confidence was weaker in August but business conditions were stronger. Business confidence fell -2 from 3 in July on the back of global uncertainty and local concerns about the mining boom. Business conditions improved modestly rising to 1 from -3 in July.
  • Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (BEN) — Directors and senior executives have taken pay cuts with a bonus cut following a decline in profits. BEN is down 1.06% to 748c.
  • Guildford Coal (GUF) — Patersons has a BUY recommendation and a 125c target price with the share price at 33.5c. The Co. have received a Mongolian government pre-mining agreement for a mine called the South Gobi Project in which they have a stake of around 42% fully diluted. Patersons says “This catapults GUF into the ranks of multi-million ton producers.” GUF is up 19.4% to 40c

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