The market is down 9. SFE Futures were down 1 this morning.

Dow Jones down 40. The Dow was down 60 towards the end of trade as the index trended down all day. With no major economic data released (just a weak NY Manufacturing index) the trend was mainly put down to profit taking with the Dow up around 4% over past two weeks. Metals were sold off and oil was down $2.35 (it fell $5 in three minutes at one point) on rumours that the government may start to tap into reserves in order to lower energy prices.

The New York Fed Empire State manufacturing index fell from -5.85 to -10.41 in September. It was the lowest reading since April 2009. All key components were weaker, especially orders.

Best sectors — Defensive sectors — Healthcare and Consumer Staples.

Worst sectors — Metals & Mining (down 2.5%), Oil & Gas, Homebuilders. Financials down — Bank of America and Morgan Stanley were both down 2.5% with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs down around 1.0% each. The SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF finished down 0.9%.

Metals mixed — Copper was down 0.95%, nickel up 2.50%, aluminium down 1.50% and zinc down 1.39%. Nickel has broken above its longer term downtrend line; the next resistance level is around 19740. Iron ore price up $3.50 to $105.10pt. Up over 20% in five days. Oil down $2.35 to $96.65 (up 2.7% last week). Oil was sold off on rumours that the US government may tap strategic reserves to push down energy prices.

  • Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) — Has secured an underwritten credit facility for up to $US4.5 billion. This facility will be used to refinance all existing debt facilities and provide the company with liquidity. It also extends the repayment debt to November 2015 and removes previous covenants — the perfect response to its financing scare. FMG is up 16.22% to 347.5c.
  • TPG Telecom (TPM) — FY result beats expectations — Net profit was $90.9m up 16% from $78.2 million above an expected $87.2 million. Revenue was up 15% to $663.1 million above an expected $652.3 million. TPG say they expect earnings to increase in fiscal 2013 year to $263 million-$273 million. Final fully franked dividend of 2.75c up from 2.25c. TPM is up 0.48% to 208c.
  • New Hope Corp (NHC) — Special dividend declared — Net profit of $167.13 million down 66.8%. Revenue was up 15.9% to $767.5 million. Final fully franked dividend of 5c alongside a special dividend of 20c. The company said ‘the current market is under significant negative pricing pressure’ which it sees as a normal cyclic feature of the industry. Production from their West Moretonin project in 2013 will be similar to last year. NHC is up 9.09% to 456c.
  • Minutes of the RBA’s September 4 meeting saw the central bank keep the cash rate on hold at 3.5% despite concerns about falling iron ore and coal prices and the high value of the Australian dollar. The RBA said there was room to cut interest rates further to support the national economy in the face of falling commodity prices, the high Australian dollar and weaker global growth. The Futures market are pricing in another 75bp cut in the next year.

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