The market is up 10. SFE Futures were up 1 this morning.

Dow Jones down 19. The market was down 19 at worst and up 84 at best. The Dow opened up and was then in downtrend for the majority of the day to finish near its lows for the fourth consecutive day. Initial jobless claims were down 30,000 to 339,000 in the first week of October — a four-year low — seen as a good number although one large State wasn’t included in the number making the comparison with last month a bit tenuous. The US trade balance came in at a $44.2 billion deficit in August, wider than the $42.5 billion recorded in July (but as expected).

Spanish banks down on news that Standard & Poor’s had downgraded the country’s sovereign debt rating to one level above junk status. European markets were up on the news as it raises the expectation that Spain is more likely to request a formal bailout (the Spanish 10-year bond yield fell – completely the opposite of what is logical…but then not much is logical in markets that go up when they print more money). Euro zone CPI figures came in under or inline with expectations.

Apple down 1.4% after a US appeals court overlooked a preliminary injunction on the sale of Samsung´s Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

European markets up – UK FTSE up 0.92%, German DAX up 1.06%, France up 1.42%, Spain up 0.87%, Italy up 1.26% and Greece down 0.10%. Europe 600 index was up 0.8% with Financials (+1.7%), Basic Materials (+1.3%), Consumer Goods (+0.9%) and Energy (+0.8%).

Metals mixed – Copper up 0.95%, Nickel up 0.29%, Aluminium up 0.61% and Zinc down 0.36%. The spot iron ore price was down $1.90 to $115.80.

  • Billabong International (BBG) – Private equity group TPG Capital has pulled their $695 million or 145c a share takeover offer. The company said discussions between the two parties have now ceased. Bain Capital, a second private equity firm made a matching bid but withdrew their offer in late September after undergoing due diligence. TPG initially made a takeover offer early this year for 300c which was rejected BBG is down 16.4% to 84c.
  • Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) said they expect to raise up to half a billion dollars from their new credit facility to help refinance its existing loans, helping the company ride out a fall in iron-ore prices. The new credit facility has delayed the company’s first debt repayment until November 2015. FMG is up 1.6% to 381c.
  • ACCC has warned News Ltd (NWS) that it would not grant approval for any future expansion into free-to-air television companies such as Nine Entertainment Co after giving them the green light to takeover Consolidated Media Holdings (CMJ) and opposing Seven Group Holdings (SVW). NWS is down 0.37% to 2410c, CMJ is up 0.29% to 343c and SVW is down 0.55% to 724c.
  • Leighton Holdings (LEI) has won a $US74 million contract to build the first proton cancer therapy centre in Saudi Arabia. LEI is up 0.17% to 1728c.

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