The market is down 21 compared to the 15 point fall the SFE Futures predicted this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 15 overnight. At least the pace of decline has pulled up after the 200 point fall on Wall St on Monday and the 121 (3.1%) fall in the ASX 200 yesterday (second worst fall since the March rally).

Yesterday’s fall took the market down 6.3% in 7 days after a 30.8% rally from the bottom in March. When you consider the 30.8% rise (at its peak) from the March bottom translates into a 164% pa return you might expect a little profit taking particularly in resources where the sector has rallied 58%.

Making the news today…

  • Ten Network (TEN) has announced EBITDA of $128m in the 3Q. Says it won’t pay a dividend in 2009 and that the difficult advertisement market has hit revenues hard.
  • Commonwealth Bank has released a presentation that they are giving to UBS. No nasty surprises, basically says operating conditions remain challenging and on the bad loans front, coverage ratios are “good”.
  • Macquarie Airports (MAP) has contributed $711m to the deleveraging of Sydney Airport’s capital structure, within its earlier guidance of $650m-$780m contribution.
  • Infigen Energy (IFN) — previously known as Babcock & Brown Wind Partners — has agreed to pay $23.5m for wind power assets from Babcock & Brown.
  • James Hardie (JHX) wants investor approval to move its corporate domicile to Ireland from the Netherlands. It also wants to simplify its structure by having a single board of directors, and that most shareholders would be eligible to receive dividends that aren’t subject to withholding tax.
  • United Group (UGL) has extended CEO Richard Leupen’s contract until 2014.
  • Westpac Bank’s (WBC) institutional division leader Phil Chronican has decided to leave the company after 30 years.
  • Lion Selection (LST) has requested a trading halt this morning.
  • Linc Energy (LNC) has ended exclusive talks with China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining over the possible sale of its non-core coal assets and has hired UBS to commence a formal sale process.
  • Aristocrat Leisure (ALL) has settled with US Intellectual Propriety Litigation at a cost of $US3.5m.
  • Eircom Holdings (ERC) has requested a trading halt.
  • Felix Resources (FLX) has responded to press speculation by saying that talks relating to change of control transaction is unlikely to conclude talks in the near term.
  • Toll Holdings (TOL) has bought three Asian international express businesses.

In other news…

  • Southern Cross Equities says Fortescue Metals (FMG) is “in play” on the back of iron ore consolidation.
  • Deutsche Bank cuts their earnings 7% and their target price from $25 to $23 on the back of currency movements. They retain a BUY recommendation.
  • Credit Suisse cut Toll Holdings (TOL) to Neutral from Underperform due to recent share price depreciation. Down 13.9% in a couple of weeks. It has a 740c target price.
  • Credit Suisse ups their recommendation on BlueScope Steel (BSL) to Outperform from Neutral saying it has fallen 13.4% in the past 11 days. Maintain its 300c target price.

The Dow Futures suggest a 5 point fall on Wall Street tonight.

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

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