The market is down 5. The SFE Futures were down 29 this morning.

Wall St. fell 100 on Friday — the worst fall in four weeks. The Dow was down 1 at best and down 149 at worst.  Economic numbers were OK. Gold fell another $12.50 to $1130 and the Oil price dropped $1.39 to $78. The Aussie dollar fell slightly to 92.12c compared to 93.19c on Friday morning. US Markets are closed tonight for Martin Luther King Holiday tonight.

  • Lihir Gold (LGL) announces its CEO Arthur Hood has resigned and will step down immediately. LGL has appointed CFO Phil Baker as interim CEO and says LGL is “extremely well positioned”, always looking for M&A and has a strategic focus on organic growth for the moment. LGL up 3c to 332c.
  • IRESS Market Technology (IRE) acquires Singapore based SENTRYi Pte and is planning to establish a wealth management presence in Asia. IRE down 14c to 864c.
  • Cazaly Resources (CAZ) hits a 19 month high, up 23% to 45c after announcing an impressive pre-feasibility study of its Parker Range iron ore project last week.
  • Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has had its target price lifted by brokers this morning on the back of its profit upgrade on Friday, but is still at the bottom of the bank preference list. Brokers favour the NAB and ANZ. CBA up 26c to 5836c.
  • BHP Billiton (BHP) releases their production numbers on Wednesday. BHP down 50c to 4315c. After RIO’s last week they should be good.
  • CSR Ltd (CSR) received an informal cash offer for its Sugar business from Chinese state-owned Bright Food. CSR has responded by saying a demerger is still their preferred option. CSR unchanged at 198c.
  • IOOF Holdings (IOF) up 5.15% to 633c on talk ANZ Bank will launch a bid.
  • News Corp (NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch and Saudi billionaire investor Price Alwaleed bin Talal were in discussions last week. Talk of NWS buying a stake in the prince’s media company. NWS down 30c to 1690c.
  • Talk of BHP Billiton making a big play for a big Canadian potash producer. Street Talk suggests the obvious target is PotashCorp of Saskatchewan, but that would be a major acquisitions considering it has a market cap of $US34bn. BHP down 53c to 4312c.
  • The Inflation Gauge came in at +0.3% for month of December. Inflation on the up but not enough to worry the RBA for the time being.
  • Stocks hitting fresh yearly highs include: ARB Corporation (ARP), Bendigo & Adelaide (BEN), Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Centrebet International (CIL), Fairfax Media (FXJ) and Toll Holdings (TOL).

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