The Market is down 34. ASX 200 Futures were down 40. The Dow Jones finished down 117. The Dow was up 12 at best and down 153 at worst. Worst sectors — energy, financials, materials.

US wholesale inventories were +0.2% for April which was in line with the forecast but below the previous reading of +0.35%.

The Bank of Japan’s decision to maintain their stimulus measures underwhelmed global markets who expected the central bank to address recent bond market volatility. Japan’s Nikkei 225 finished down 1.45% yesterday on the news.

European shares fell to six-week lows on Tuesday on concerns that the ECB’s support for markets was turning more cautious. European bond yields up. European markets down — UK FTSE down 0.94%, Germany down 1.03%, France down 1.39%, Spain down 1.68%, Italy down 1.63%.

Spanish 10-year bond yield was up 6.3bpts to 4.64%. Italian 10-year bond yield was 7.5bpts to 4.36%. Greek 10-year bond yield was up 35.6bpts to 9.70%.

Gold was down $8.50 to $1377.50. Oil was down 84c to $94.93c.

BHP and RIO down 1.85% and 1.36% in ADR for in the US with BHP closing at the equivalent 3309c down 1c on last night’s close here.

Metals down — copper down 1.385, nickel down 2.445, aluminium down 1.955, zinc down 1.97%.

Announcements & stories:

  • Consumer confidence rebounded in June after two months of decline. The Melbourne Institute and Westpac Bank showed its index of consumer sentiment rose 4.7% in June up from -7% in May.
  • Newcrest (NCM) — Has defended the timing of their major restructure announcement saying that they have not breached any share market rules. Last Friday the company announced the closure of their Brisbane office together with $6 billion in write downs. In the days leading up to this — three different analysts downgraded their recommendations sending the share price falling. NCM is down 1.12% to 1189.5c today and is down over 40% for the quarter.
  • Transfield Services (TSE) — Has appointed a Vince Nicoletti as their new CEO. TSE is down 3.8% to 76c.
  • James Hardie (JHX) — Has named Matthew Marsh as their new Chief Financial Officer. JHX is down 1.87% to 947c.
  • Wesfarmers (WES) — Staff at Target headquarters in Geelong are walking out after being made redundant this morning. A total of 260 staff have been made redundant. It is believed that the redundancies are spread across all departments. WES is down 1.22% to 3740c.
  • NAB is expecting tomorrow’s employment data to show 10,000 jobs were lost in May and the unemployment rate to rise to 5.6% from 5.5%. NAB says unemployment will climb over 6% by the end of the year, higher than the peak of the GFC.