WMC Resources’ magnificent seven – its top seven executives – will take
away $30 million when they depart the Melbourne-based mining group,
reports Barry FitzGerald in The Smage.
Former managing director Andrew Michelmore wins the take-home stakes
with an estimated $12 million (including entitlements and shares
accrued over 12 years), which should ease the pain of his resignation.

The
board of the federal government’s new Future Fund will have to take
into account both national interest and ethical concerns when making
investments, and will need to be more risk-averse than public service
superannuation funds, reports Lenore Taylor in the Fin Review.
The government has decided not to ask the existing commonwealth public
servants’ superannuation schemes to manage the fund because it would be
a different and far more scrutinised task.

Oroton and Miller’s
Retail have joined the phalanx of second-tier Australian retailers
reeling in the face of fierce competition, constant discounting and the
warmer start to winter, reports The Australian.
Shares in Oroton plunged 25% yesterday as the company said its
full-year earnings before interest, tax and amortisation would be 41%
below last year’s $14.5 million result. Oroton has also backed out of
an offer from private equity firm Catalyst Investment Management to
privatise the company, reports the SMH.

When
you get such cagey and experienced players as Sir Ron Brierley and the
Pratt family’s Alex Waislitz circling Tattersall’s, you know that they
must have a game plan, says Stephen Bartholomeusz in The Age. But no-one connected with the $2 billion float seems to have a clue what it might be.

It’s
one thing for US Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan to warn,
as he did at the IMF conference in Beijing yesterday, that many hedge
fund trading strategies will “disappoint” (code for “be a total
disaster”). But what we really need is some sort of guidance about
what’s going on in the bond market, says Alan Kohler in TheSmage. But the chairman doesn’t know what is – mind you, he’s in good company.

On
Wall Street, US stocks were mixed overnight as an early rally sparked
by comments from Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan fizzled amid
cautious remarks from another Fed official. After rising triple-digits
during the day, the Dow Jones closed up just 16.04 points, or 0.2%, at
10,483. MarketWatch has a full report here.

And the RBA has left official interest rates unchanged for a third
consecutive month amid continuing signs that the economy has slowed
to a sub-par pace – the AFR has a full report here.