The market is down 8. The SFE Futures were down 17 this morning.

The Dow closed down 30. Up 20 at best and down 48 at worst. Gold was the main story overnight — it closed up $22 to $979, the largest intra-day rise in 5 month. Oil was unchanged and the Aussie dollar went up to 83.39c versus 82.65c yesterday morning. August FOMC minutes said the Fed still concerned about pace of economic recovery and continued challenges for the banking sector.

Making the new today…

  • Gold stocks flying on the back of the Gold price putting on 2.3% overnight — Both Newcrest and Lihir up 6.5%, St. Barbara up 27.4%. September is traditionally a good month for gold.
  • Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has launched a 4yr non-government guaranteed bond. Price guidance is 89bps above the bank bill swap rate. CBA down 36x.
  • Murchison Metals (MMX) up 10% after saying early drilling results indicate its Jack Hills project in WA could have an iron ore resource of 1.5bn-2bn metric tons.
  • Virgin Blue (VBA) has successfully completed the retail component of its equity raising — it sold 1.16bn new shares and raised (inc. institutional placement) $231.4m. VBA up 0.5c to 37c.
  • CuDeco (CDU) up 12% first thing after announcing it has drilled a hole as deep as 850m at its Rocklands Project and is, according to its CEO, “by far the most significant drilled by the company to date.”
  • Street Talk tells us negotiations between Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG) and Macquarie Group (MQG) are continuing regarding a buy-out of management rights. MQG up 7c, MIG up 0.5c to 131c.
  • The AFR reports the NSW Government’s power privatisation has been delayed until next year due to complexities.
  • Australia’s Trade Deficit has come in worse than expected — now stands at $1.56bn compared to expectations of $850m.
  • Nufarm major shareholder and MD Doug Rathbone was talking up current takeover negotiations with China’s Sinochem Corp. yesterday. He didn’t mention whether a set offer price as offered yet, but said the forthcoming crop season could be a “boomer”. NUF up 6c to 1132c.
  • Lynas Corp (LYC) down 4% after it said the FIRB won’t have a decision on China Nonferrous Metal Mining’s planned $252m investment until next month.
  • The Australian says that Woolworths is looking to sell $100m worth of shopping centres and services stations.
  • Webjet.com (WEB), Cudenco (CDU) and Sino Gold (SGX) have hit a fresh yearly high.

The Dow Futures were down 8 at midday.

MARCUS PADLEY is the author of the MARCUS TODAY Daily Stockmarket Newsletter.

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