The market is down 15. The SFE Futures were up 4 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 14 overnight. Market opened low and rallied most of the day having been down 107 at worst. The European markets closed whilst Wall St was down. Initial jobless claims were described as disappointing and the Producer Price Index was a bit better than expected at the headline. Google fell 5.5% after hours on late results. The oil price was up $1 to $108.11, Gold was up $16.80 to $1472.40 and the Aussie dollar fell to 104.50c from 104.97c.

Today’s main stories…

  • Rio Tinto’s (RIO) Chairman Jan du Plessis has warned shareholders that world markets remain fragile, despite economies being on the road to recovery post GFC. He also said demand for iron ore will be largely unaffected by the Japanese disaster last month. RIO down 61c to 8451c.
  • West Australian Newspapers (WAN) has completed a $40m new share sale at an issue price of 520c. WAN unchanged at 524c.
  • Brambles (BXB) has priced a $688m 7yr bond issue to retire existing bank debt. BXB down 10c to 702c.
  • Boral (BLD) has spent $US182m buying quarry, concrete and land assets from Wagners Group, one of their competitors. BLD up 1c to 506c.
  • NRW Holdings (NWH) is trading again today after raising $70m in an institutional share placement. NWH unchanged at 285c.
  • Mirabela Nickel (MBN) has closed their $US395m senior unsecured note offering. MBN down 3c to 201c
  • OM Holdings (OMH) will move their primary listing to the Hong Kong stock exchange as part of their plans to dual list in the territory. OMH down 3.5c to 124c.
  • Western Areas (WSA) released their quarterly production numbers. 3rd Q Nickel production fell 7% on the previous quarter to 7,400 tons. Cash costs came in at $US2.23lb. They will move to underground mining later this month at their open-pit Spotted Qoull operations in WA. WSA down 5c to 707c.
  • One of Equinox’s major shareholders has told the board to push for a higher takeover price from Minmetals. They say the current offer undervalues the company.
  • Woolworths (WOW) release their 3rd Q sales numbers on Monday. GSJB Were expects comparable stores sales growth of 4%. They say the key will be any profit impact from the natural disasters and recent price initiatives. WOW down 18c to 2650c.
  • CHINESE NUMBERS out around lunchtime. Not a lot of traders will be taking big positions in small resources ahead of these. We are waiting on GDP, CPI, PPI, Industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales. Leaks suggest CPI will come in at 5.3-5.4% above the 5.2% expected. GDP expected to be up 9.2%.

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