Morning Market Report, Mar 31, 2008

Morning Market Report

The highs and lows of today's stockmarket activity.

Mar 31, 2008

The market is down 14. The SFE Futures suggest a 49 point fall in the market this morning.

Dow Jones closed down 86 on Friday – The market fell 145 or 1.17% for the week and it’s looking likely that the quarter will boast the biggest drop since 2002 (which was then followed by the start of a 4½ year bull market). The Dow was up 80 at its best and down 106 at its worst. FTSE down 0.43%. The focus moved from the credit crunch and financials to fears of recession again on the back of weak retail stocks (profit warning from JC Penney) and weak consumer spending numbers. Retail sector down on back of poor earnings guidance from major consumer discretionary stocks JCPenney, and Apollo Group and financials down as major broker suggests banks will be unable to maintain dividends at current levels due to lower earning levels. The sector yield at 5.9% is the highest since 1990. They suggested some financials could fall 25%.

Both BHP and RIO up in ADR form on Friday, 0.77% and 0.65% respectively.
Metals all down on Friday – Nickel down 3%, Zinc down 2.3% and Copper down 1.2%. Aluminium down 0.5%.
Oil price down $1.97 to $105.59 after OPEC governor of the United Arab Emirates said oil markets are well supplied with inventories of crude oil and refined products over the 5 year average.
Gold down $18.20 to $930.60.
Bonds down with the 10 year yield up to 3.43%

OPES is the major issue this morning – its exposures, the selling, the injustice – we have a page up about it on the Marcus Today website with some of the implications and expectations.

RBA expected to keep the cash rate on hold on at their meeting tomorrow.

Premier Investments (PMW) – the company controlled by Solomon Lew – has bid for Just Group (JST) valuing the company at $898m. PMV down 8% to 725c and JST up 9.7% to 386c.
Arrow Energy (AOE) has signed an agreement with China’s Urumqi Geological & Exploration Development to explore for coal-bed methane projects in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. AOE up 1.5c to 189.5c.
Woodside Petroleum (WPL), BHP Billiton (BHP) and the four other North West Shelf Venture participants have approved the $5 billion North Rankin 2 project off Australia’s northwest coast. The project is due to start in 2013. BHP’s share of the cost in the project will be $US850m. BHP up 27c to 3632c and WPL down 32c to 5318c.
Pan Australian (PNA) said its first copper-gold ore production project at Phu Kham is ahead of schedule and within its budget of US$241m. PNA up 2c to 100.5c.
Babcock & Brown Wind Partners (BBW) has received strong interest for some of its assets from potential buyers. BBW unchanged at 150c.
Midwest Corp. (MIS) shareholders have been warned by China’s Sinosteel that MIS’s share price may go south if its $1.2bn takeover bid fails. MIS has rejected the offer saying it’s too low. MIS up 3c to 603c.
Virgin Blue (VBA) announced it will begin daily flights between Sydney and Los Angeles on December 15. VBA unchanged at 125c.
Fox Resources (FXR) going great guns after China’s Jinchuan said it would pay 95c a share for an 11% stake. (18.8m shares) The stock closed at 48.5c on Friday and is up 25% today to 61c.