The market is down 63. The SFE Futures were down 52 this morning.

Wall Street closed down 115 overnight. Dow was up 93 at best and down 144 at worst. The big news overnight was Germany temporarily banning naked short selling of several financial stocks, credit default swaps and government bonds, bringing back memories of the global financial crisis. Oil price fell $1.17 to $72.36 and the Gold price dropped $13.10 to $1215. Metals struggled again on the LME and the Aussie again lost ground to 86.19c from 87.73c.

In other news today…

  • Peabody has walked away from Macarthur Coal (MCC) after their $3.8bn takeover offer was rejected yesterday. The offer was opposed by CITIC, MCC’s biggest shareholder, and was unlikely to succeed. MCC down another 5% today to 1064c, having already fallen 32% in the past month. Patersons have upped their recommendation on MCC to BUY from HOLD.
  • David Jones (DJS) — 3Q Sales Numbers — Like-for-like sales increased 1.4% with sales coming at $417.4m, up 1.4% from the same period last year. Patersons maintain their HOLD recommendation on DJS and prefer MYR. DJS outperforming today — up 3c to 430c. MYR down 7c to 303c.
  • Fortescue Metals (FMG) announced they will put two of their three expansion projects — $US9bn Solomon hub and $US6bn Western hub projects – on hold as they review the impact of the RSPT. FMG down 20c or 4.93% to 386c.
  • Front page of the AFR has BHP CEO Marius Kloopers warning his 540,000 shareholders that the RSPT could threaten BHP’s dividend payments. He also warned the $20bn expansion of the Olympic Dam project was at risk. BHP down 36c today to 3688c.
  • AWB Ltd (AWB) down 2.5% to 97.5c after announcing 1st H net loss of $64.8m and no interim dividend. Their CFO expects ongoing significant items from legal actions but reiterates FY profit forecasts.
  • Adelphi Energy (ADI) is advising their shareholders to “TAKE NO ACTION” regarding the unsolicited takeover offer from Australian Worldwide Exploration (AWE).  ADI down 0.5c to 41c today, AWE up 2c to 216c.
  • Hastie Group (HST) has announced $66m worth of new projects in Qatar. Patersons has a BUY recommendation with a 215c target price. HST down 2.9% today to 147.5c.
  • Stockland Group (SGP) says they are on target to deliver record residential sales in FY10 and reiterated FY EPS guidance of 29c a share. SGP down 6c to 374c.
  • Stock hitting fresh 52 week lows include: Alesco Corp (ALS), Carnarvon Petroleum (CVN), Gunns (GNS), Kagara (KZL), Nufarm (NUF), Photon Group (PGA) and Santos (STO).

MARCUS PADLEY is the Author of the MARCUS TODAY Daily Stockmarket Newsletter.

For a free 5 day obligation free trial of the MARCUS TODAY newsletter (and no we won’t ask for a credit card number) please Click Here —  you will receive our renowned and popular Daily email about the stockmarket with all the stuff you need to know ahead of the trading day including overnight developments, news, comments, rumours, broker stuff and Ideas from Marcus and his Team. You will also be given a password to the MARCUS TODAY website including access to our Recommended Portfolio which is actively managed on behalf of subscribers … no “set & forget”. Everything you need to effortlessly managed your own long term investment portfolio.

It includes an Income Portfolio. And for the traders we monitor short and medium term trades on top of the portfolio. Members also get access to our Database —  all the numbers with comments on the ASX 200 stocks and more. Members also get access to our Educational section which includes an archive of Marcus’s Educational and Entertaining articles.  We are sure you will enjoy and profit from what we offer. Thousands of subscribers enjoy and profit from our services every day. We have one of the highest re-subscription rates in the financial newsletter industry.

For your FREE TRIAL — Click here

To Subscribe to MARCUS TODAY — Click Here

We also offer a FREE END OF DAY EMAIL — Click here — A free summary of the day in the market.

To buy MARCUS’S BOOK “Stock Market Secrets”  —  Click here