Falling demand
January 12th, 2009 by Antony Ganzitti
Closing Data
| current | change | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow Jones | 8599.18 | -143.28 | -1.6% |
| NASDAQ | 1571.59 | -45.42 | -2.8% |
| S P 500 | 890.35 | -19.38 | -2.1% |
| FTSE 100 | 4448.54 | -56.83 | -1.3% |
| Nikkei 225 | 8836.8 | -39.62 | -0.4% |
| SPI Futures | 3649 | 28 | 0.8% |
| All Ords | 3,680.00 | 36.8 | 1.0% |
| Oil | 40.69 | -0.99 | -2.4% |
| Gold | 855 | 0.5 | 0.1% |
| Silver | 11.32 | 0.223 | 2.0% |
| Aluminium | 1520.5 | 4 | 0.3% |
| Copper | 3280 | 109.5 | 3.5% |
| Lead | 1185 | 39.5 | 3.4% |
| Nickel | 11375 | -100 | -0.9% |
| Tin | 11350 | 100 | 0.9% |
| Zinc | 1220 | -10 | -0.8% |
US stocks fell Friday and had their worst week since November as the unemployment rate hit a near 16-year high of 7.2%. This was the 12th straight month of job losses, and for the entire year of 2008 2.6 million jobs have been lost, the most since 1945. Citigroup was in talks with Morgan Stanley over the weekend for the sale of its Smith Barney wealth management unit. The integrated oil giant Chevron said that its 4th quarter earnings would be ‘significantly lower’ than the prior year, while Schlumberger (largest oilfield services company) said it plans to lay off 1000 workers in North America.
President Elect - Barack Obama is making significant change to his economic stimulus package after the latest job figures and discussion with the senate.
Chinese steel mills are prepared to demand a 40% cut in the price of iron ore (they do this every year) . They are also looking at the introduction of quarterly pricing as part of their bargaining during benchmark pricing negotiations with RIO and BHP, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on its website Monday. The report also says that at least one large iron ore miner is privately expecting a 30% fall in the benchmark price.
OZL
Oz Minerals is still waiting for lenders to formally respond to its request for bridging finance to cover cash shortfalls at several of its mines. The miner said its lenders had not formally responded by January 9, as it had requested, but that they have vowed to do so ‘as soon as possible’ and ‘significant progress’ has been made on securing bridging finance. OZL needs to refinance US$560 million in debt, and at present has a cash balance of only A$132 million.
Our market will be down today – a good day to buy quality stocks.
Contact your Freeman Fox Stockbroker on 07 3031 9960 or 1800 003 369 Ext 7.
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