The market is unchanged. SFE Futures were up 3 this morning.

Dow Jones was down 3 losing 69 points in the last 2 hours. The Dow was up 81 at best and down 21 at worst. Another round of quantitative easing (QE4) was announced at the December FOMC meeting but failed to generate much interest on Wall St. FOMC policy makers have opted to replace the soon to finish Operation Twist program with a new round of monetary stimulus, which will see it buy US$45 billion per month of Treasury securities (starting in January) but this time with “unsterilised” purchases…in other words they are financed not by selling short term bonds but by printing money. Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke commented on upcoming fiscal negotiations saying that “Given the tools we have available, we cannot offset the fiscal impact, it’s just too big”. The US federal budget deficit came in at US$172.1 billion which was considerably higher than the forecast and the previous months reading. US bond yields up, Gold up slightly and the US$ down. The FOMC also lowered their GDP growth projections from 2.0% to 1.8% for 2012 and from 2.5% to 3.0% down to 2.3% for 2013. European markets continued to make 18 month highs on the back of mixed economic data. Best sectors – Telecoms (+1.0%), Financials (+0.5%) and Energy (+0.4%). Worst sectors – Technology (-0.5%), Health Care (-0.2%), Consumer Services (-0.2%).

  • Sales of new motor vehicles in Australia were flat in November with 95,748 cars sold, a rise of less than 1%. 
  • Westpac (WBC) – AGM – Retains the “Challenging environment” line – to be expected. Cash earnings were up 5% last year to $6.6 billion. AGM quote: “Given the material strengthening of the balance sheet we are in excellent shape to positively respond to whatever emerges in the external environment. With all of our businesses showing good momentum, Westpac is well placed to continue delivering sound returns for shareholders.” WBC is up 0.12% to 2593c.
  • Bank of Queensland (BOQ) – AGM – The bank remains optimistic about a recovery in the QLD housing market. BOQ was the first bank in 2 decades to post a loss, announced a $17 million loss last year. The Chairman said the bank expected to “bounce back” from its losses. BOQ is down 0.69% to 718c.
  • Iluka Resources (ILU) – Down 7% after the company issued a production downgrade. The sale of mineral sands for 2012 will be lower than expected as slowing global growth continues to weigh on demand. The company now expects to report total sales of about 475,000 metric tonnes in the 12 months to Dec 31st. ILU is down 7.18% to 802c.
  • Graincorp (GNC) – Has rejected a revised $2.78 billion (1120c) takeover offer from US firm Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) saying the bid materially undervalues the company. GNC is down 0.65% to 1230c.
  • BHP Billiton (BHP) – Will invest US$520 million into a facility that will help cut carbon dioxide from natural gas produced at their offshore Turrum development. BHP is up 0.31% to 3587c.
  • Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) – Has reported a 2/3 increase in resources at their Iron Bridge project. FMG is down 1.05% to 424c.

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