Midday Market Roundup 12/09/2008

  The ASX 200 is up 47. That compares to Wall Street being up 164 and the 43 point rise predicted by the SFE Futures this morning - we were up as much as 70 points early on. Bit quiet. Resources up 1.7% - BHP and RIO up about 2.0%. Oz Minerals is up 3.5% after 4-months of heavy losses on the back of falling zinc and copper prices. Financials not finding any solid support - only up 0.3% - as uncertainty spreads through the financial sector from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Lehmans with talk that Merrills (down 16% overnight) may be next. Who knows who's next, the uncertainty is the problem.The Dow was up 164 last night. Up 177 at best - down 170 at worst. Massive volatility still - rallied 170 points in the last half hour. Financials initially smashed on concerns over Lehman's future - sector down 4.7% early on but closed up 1.7% on rumours that the Bank of America was going to bail them out. How many times will the US rally hard on a failure being rescued? Lehman still closed down 41%. Oil fell to below & #36;101 per barrel helping transport related stocks close 4.4% up - United Airlines up 11.5%, CXS up 11% on an earnings forecast upgrade, and General Motors up 12%. & #160;Oil and gas refiners up 8.3% on widening 'crack-spreads' (profit margins btw crude and gasoline) - Valero, Tesero and Sunoco up about 7%, 8% and 13%. US dollar mixed against other currencies and down 0.12% against the Aussie. A & #36; at 80.20c this morning. Metals were up moderately except for nickel and aluminium which closed slightly down.Both BHP and RIO down in ADR form overnight, 1.43% and 0.13% respectively. BHP up 93c to 3540c. RIO up 253c to 10408c.Metals mixed overnight - Zinc up 2.66% and Copper up 1.44%. Nickel down 0.04% and Aluminium down 0.12%.Oil price down & #36;1.71 to & #36;100.95 after the US dollar strengthened further. Woodside up 105c to 5313c.Gold down & #36;17 to & #36;745.50. Newcrest up 66c to 1926c.US Bonds unchanged with the 10 year yield to 3.63%  

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