The market is down 9. The SFE Futures were down 8 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 46 overnight. Dow up 108 at best and down 90 at worst. The S&P 500 was up 0.2% but was unable to hold above its 200-day moving average for the third day. European markets were down as Standard and Poor’s put the European Union’s AAA long-term rating put on “creditwatch negative”. Their short-term A-1+ rating was affirmed. Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas were also put on “creditwatch negative”. There is hope that a euro zone solution will be found when European Union leaders meet Thursday and Friday at a summit in Brussels. Metals were mostly down on the LME, the oil price fell 70c to $100.58 and Gold put on $13.90 to $1745.70. The Aussie dollar rose to 102.92c from 102.44c.

Main points:

  • Orica (ORI) has announced another leakage. Thousands of liters of a dilute ammonium nitrate solution leaked from a storage area at their plant near Newcastle, although it posses no risk to the public. Patersons has cut the stock to Hold from Buy as a result. ORI down 1c to 2587c.
  • Iluka Resource (ILU) up 6% to 1671c after they were able to squeeze substantially higher prices from customers for their mineral sands. Average prices for rutile are expected to jump as much as 85% and synthetic rutile up to 90% for the next six months over the second half of 2011.
  • Australian Worldwide Exploration (AWE) announced they have sold down their interest in the Tasmanian Bass Basin JV and will pay a special dividend to their shareholders. AWE up 4% to 146c.
  • Those who had faith in QR National (QRN) have not only done extremely well is a falling market since the company listed, but around 50,000 of them are now eligible for bonus stock. QRN down 2c to 340c.
  • Extract Resources (EXT) are in a trading halt ahead of a deadline for China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp to decide whether to proceed with a bid for Kalahari Minerals, EXT’s biggest shareholder. EXT last traded at 809c.
  • Talk in the press of Crown (CWM) launching a bid for Echo Entertainment (EGP) sooner rather than later. One broker said there wouldn’t be any competition issues as both operate as monopolies anyway. CWN up 2c to 828c and EGP up 1c to 369c.
  • BHP Billiton (BHP) CEO Marius Kloppers said the roughly $US200bn worth of potential growth in the iron ore, copper, coking coal, potash and petroleum sectors may force them to consider selling under-performing aluminium and nickel units. BHP down 19¢ to 3683¢.
  • Quote of the Day: Matt Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, often referred to as the nicest banker in the world, said he didn’t understand why everyone was bashing the rich. Answering to a question at an investor conference he said, “Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and that everyone who is rich is bad — I just don’t get it.”

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