The market is down 7. The SFE Futures were down 25 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 236 overnight, on its low for the day. The S&P 500 was down for a sixth straight day — its longest losing streak since a seven-day drop in August. The index is now down 14.8% from its high for the year on April 29. It remains 5.7% above its October 3 low.  A German bond sale had weak demand suggesting that debt issues are spreading throughout the euro zone and the HSBC preliminary China manufacturing PMI was disappointing. The oil price fell 2.2% on fears of reduced Chinese demand, Gold fell $9.90 at $1692.50 and the Aussie dollar took a hammering — falling to 96.89c from 98.33c.

Main points:

  • David Jones (DJS) has announced sales numbers for the quarter. Despite sales falling 11.2%, they reiterated guidance for a substantial fall. Total sales for the Q fell to $414.3m from $466.6m last year. Patersons says the figure is an improvement on October but still negative. They maintain their Hold recommendation. DJS down 14c to 283c.
  • Murchison Metals (MMX) up 47% to 40.5c after announcing they will sell their 50% interest in the Oakajee Port and Rail project and their Jack Hills iron ore mine to Mitsubishi for $325m.
  • Westpac Bank (WBC) said they are creating two new divisions and overhauling their management structure. They have established an Australian Financial Service division to be led by Brian Hartzer, and are also creating a Group Services unit to be led by John Arthur which encompasses technology, banking operations, property services and legal.
  • GrainCorp (GNC) bucking the trend today on the back of their net profit more than doubling to 171.6m mainly driven by receipts from a large eastern Australian grain harvest. FY revenue hit $2.78bn, up 40%, and declared a final dividend of 15c, and a special dividend of 20c a share. GNC up 25c to 760c.
  • Downer EDI (DOW) down 2.5% to 301c – they have appointed Philip Garling as a non-executive director, effective Nov 24, 2011.
  • Southern Cross Media (SXL) said they intend on buying back around 5.4% of their shares. At the current price of $1.10 a share, the buyback would be worth around $41.7m. SXL up 0.5c to 110.5c.
  • Goodman Group (GMG) have held their AGM and told shareholder they anticipate FY operating profit to be around $460m. Importantly, they have reaffirmed FY12 guidance. GMG up 0.5c to 58.5c
  • WorleyParsons (WOR) has won a $US200m project management consultancy contract for a refinery in Ecuador. WOR down 4% to 2495c.
  • US Markets are closed tonight for Thanksgiving Holiday

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