The market is down 25 points.

The Dow Jones was up 14 points to 15,976. The market rose above 16,000 for the first time in history before drifting towards the end of the day. It closed under the key level but still at a record closing high in a 90 point range.

There were a number of US Fed officials talking overnight but nothing was said to change the perception that tapering is on hold until March next year.

The S&P was down seven to 1792.

Oil fell almost 1% to US$92.92.

Gold fell US$13.70 to US$1273.70 per ounce.

The US$ was weaker against most major currencies and the Aussie dollar was virtually unchanged from yesterday at US$0.9379.

VIX volatility index rose 8% to 13.17.

US treasury markets were stronger — the yield on the 10 year bond fell four basis points to 2.668%.

European shares were stronger — The UK FTSE rose 0.45% and the French and German markets were both up over 0.6%. The Italian market rose 2.24%.

European bonds were stronger. The yield on the Euro 10 year bond yield fell two basis points and was UK 10 year bond yield fell two basis points.

Base metal prices were weaker — led by nickel down 1.75% and Zinc down 0.73%.

Iron ore was up US$0.20 to US$137.00 a tonne.

STORIES

  • Orica ex-dividend today 55c
  • GPT Group (GPT) has made a $2.99 billion takeover bid for Commonwealth Property Fund (CPA), offering 0.141 of its shares and 75.325c for every CPA share. At current prices, this values CPA at $1.272 a share and compares with Dexus’ current offer for CPA which has an implied value of $1.21 a share. The combination of both GPT and CPA will create Australia’s leading office player.
  • AGMs today include Seven Group (SVW), iiNET (IIN), Monadelphous (MND), Sirius Resource (SIR) and Syrah Resources (SYR).
  • RBA minutes from the November meeting released.
  • Chinese economic reforms being viewed well — “the most sweeping economic and social reforms in 30 years” etc. Apart from the reforms being good for  China, they’re also good for the “mining sector is not dead” story.
  • GPT Group (GPT) — Makes a counter bid for Commonwealth Property Fund (CPA).
  • Silex Systems (SLX) – Up 3.57% on its AGM.
  • Greeceis back in negotiations with officials from the IMF, ECB and European Commission to resolve a 2014 budget disagreement and maintain the flow of rescue funds. The debate centres around a shortfall in the 2014 budget even after the scheduled loans. Greece maintains it can make up the difference without further austerity measures.
  • Christmas IPOs — The IPO market is booming. This week’s successful listing of Freelancer.com (FLN) has brought about a rush of companies trying to list before Christmas. The total capital raised for the calendar year is set to exceed $13 billion. Veda is due to list in early December and will be the second biggest IPO after Nine Entertainment. Veda will raise about $341.1 million through the issue of 272.8 million shares at a price of 125c.
  • Dot com boom mark II — Financial experts are predicting a mini dotcom boom as low returns on cash holdings and unstable equity markets are driving venture capitalists and wealthy individuals to consider alternative high growth sectors.