A quiet start to a quiet week on the stockmarket — the market is down 7. The SFE Futures were up 5 this morning.

Wall Street closed down 20 overnight and closed up 38 on Friday. The Dow was up 118 at best and down 25 at worst overnight. The market was performing well up until Moody’s announced a credit rating downgrade for Greek debt to Ba1 from A3. Metals were mostly up on the LME, Oil price went up 72c to $74.50 and Gold fell $5.70 to $1224.50. The Aussie dollar was up to 85.86c from 84.84c.

Financial Markets were closed yesterday — it was the Queen’s Birthday.

In other news today…

  • The Reserve Bank of Australia has released the minutes from its June meeting. The minutes say the RBA has the flexibility to keep interest rates on Hold for now, giving it time to assess the European sovereign debt crisis and the 2Q inflation data at the end of July. The tone suggests no change to interest rates at their next meeting.
  • Asciano (AIO) has secured a contract with Anglo American Metallurgical Coal to haul coal from its German Creek facility in Queensland. AIO will gain more than $775 million in revenue over 10 years. AIO up 2c to 160c.
  • Talk of News Corp (NWS) buying the remaining 61% stake in the UK’s BSkyB it doesn’t already own. NWS down 2.45% to 1788c.
  • ANZ Bank (ANZ) might not be buying a majority $1.4bn stake in Indonesia’s Bank Panin after Panin’s largest shareholder, Mukmin Ali Gunawan, announced his stake is not for sale. ANZ wanted to lift their current 38.8% shareholding. ANZ up 4c to 2308c.
  • Prime Infrastructure Group (PIH) announced that Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America has agreed to a staged cut in charges for gas supply over the next 6 years in a settlement with US regulators. PIH down 1c to 379c.
  • Aquila Resources (AQA) has engaged in a dispute with their JV partner Vale over the proposed budget for their Eagle Downs hard coking coal project. AQA down 6c to 866c.
  • Boral (BLD) CEO Mark Selway will reveal the company’s strategic review early next month. Underperforming divisions are likely to be put up for sale and strategic assets acquired. BLD down 3c to 527c.
  • Australian Worldwide Exploration (AWE) has announced yet another disappointing result from an exploration well – Tui SW-2 – in New Zealand. AWE down 8c to 205c.
  • Total personal finance commitments fell 0.6% in April to a seasonably adjusted $6.814bn.
  • Stocks hitting fresh 52 week highs include: CBH Resources (CBH), Ramsay Health Care (RHC) and White Energy Corp (WEC). Stocks hitting fresh yearly lows include Bannerman Resources (BMN), Pan Pacific Petroleum (PPP) and Rivercity Motorway (RCY).

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