The market is down 52. The SFE Futures were up 11 this morning.

The Dow closed down 108 overnight having been down 254 in the morning on renewed fears that Greece will default. Talk that Greece was close to securing funding from the IMF, EU, and ECB helped the US markets erase half their losses before the close. Breaking news this morning was an S&P downgrade of Italy’s credit rating outlook. Metals finished lower, the oil price dropped $2.56 to $85.70 and the Gold price fell $35.80 at $1778.90. The Aussie dollar fell to 101.81c from 102.98c and was lower after the Italian downgrade. RBA Minutes this morning confirm that the RBA are on hold.

Today’s main stories…struggling for stock specific news:

  • The RBA released the minutes from their September meeting. They retain a neutral bias and look to changes in the economic environment for direction. If fixed rate mortgages are anything to go by interest rates have already peaked.
  • Seven Group (SVW) has launched a $3 a share cash takeover offer for National Hire Group (NHR). SVW already owns 66.2% of NHR and says the offer gives NHR shareholders a way of selling their shares due to the lack of liquidity. The offer represents a 60% premium to NHR’s closing price of 188c. SVW down 22c to 832c.
  • TPG Telecom (TPM) announced a 40% increase in FY net profit to $78.2m, up from $55.7m. Revenue was up 13% to $574.5m. They declared a final dividend of 2.25c fully franked. TPM up 0.5c to 148c.
  • James Packer has offloaded his $80m stake in Challenger Financial (CGF). There was a large trade in the company yesterday with 43m shares sold at 455c each. CGF down 3c to 454c.
  • Leighton Holdings (LEI) has won a $100m contract from Fortescue Metals (FMG) for works on the Solomon Hub iron ore mine in WA’s Pilbara region. LEI down 7c to 1793c.
  • MAp Group (MAP) has announced that traffic through Sydney Airport fell slightly in August from the same month last year. Traffic fell 0.7% in August, as domestic traffic fell 1.7% and international traffic was up 1.7%. MAP down 3c to 325c.
  • According to their annual report Fairfax Media (FXJ) paid their CEO Brian McCarthy $2.36m to leave the company. It was classified as a “termination” payment. FXJ up 0.5c to 82c.
  • Regis Resources (RRL) announced a maiden profit after tax of $36.3m for the year ended 30 June 2011. RRL down 4c to 295c.
  • Interesting statistic from The Age today, US companies are holding 7.1% of their assets in cash, the highest level since 1963, and that figure doesn’t include the cash reserves held by the foreign offshoots of US companies.
  • STOCK MARKET SOFTWARE – Had a question about stock market software this morning…everyone seems to like what they get used to but in the newsletter today we have highlighted which software we use for the charting side of the newsletter. You may have your own ideas…some subscribers have already submitted their views you can see those in the newsletter as well. Marcus Today….a little bit of Education every day.

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