Morning market movers: 12 stocks you need to know about

Our market is set to slide this morning but it is the iron ore crash that will dominate attention, although Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) and SEEK Limited (ASX:SEK) will also be in the spotlight.

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If you thought the market shakeup triggered by Greece's potential expulsion from the European Union is over following yesterday's stellar rally – think again.

The futures market is pointing to a 0.4% slide in the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) this morning on mixed offshore leads as Greece faces a Sunday deadline to offer an austerity plan that creditors will accept or face being kicked out of the Eurozone.

Our market chalked up a 1.9% surge on Tuesday on the hope that the Greek crisis is well contained but I think we will have to put up with more volatility for the next few days at least.

Resource stocks will likely be leading the falls today as commodity prices took a beating overnight. Iron ore's crash to under $US50 a tonne will steal the spotlight and put the likes of Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) and Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) under pressure.

The steel making ingredient slumped for the ninth straight session as it lost 5.1% to $49.60 a tonne and some forecasters are predicting it will fall to around $US40 a tonne as the market will be oversupplied until 2017.

But the pain will be shared with the rest of the resources sector, including gold miner Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) and copper producer OZ Minerals Limited (ASX: OZL), with the gold price tumbling 1.8% to $US1,153 an ounce and copper tanking 3.6% to $US2.45 a pound.

It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to OceanaGold Corporation's (ASX: OGC) positive drilling results at the Macraes gold field that were released this morning.

In a further sign of an earnings slowdown facing our banks, Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) have tightened lending rules for investor property loans, according to Bloomberg.

Westpac is lowering its loan-to-value ratio to 80% from 95% for investors and ANZ dropped the maximum amount it is willing to lend to 90% of the property value from 97% but said interest rates on investor loans will not fall below 7.25% compared with variable mortgage rate of 5.38%.

ANZ said this is to ensure investors can keep repaying loans when interest rates increase.

Online jobs classified SEEK Limited (ASX: SEK) will also be in focus as it is believed to be readying an initial public offer for its joint venture IDP Education Australia business, while gas utility APA Group (ASX: APA) has appointed Morgan Stanley to help with its bid on the Iona gas plant reports the Australian Financial Review.

There's also reports of strong interest from Chinese government-banked infrastructure groups for Australian infrastructure, according to the AFR, and the news comes hot on the heels of Brookfield's takeover proposal for port owner Asciano Ltd (ASX: AIO).

These Chinese buyers are believed to be interested in liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline projects like the ones running from LNG plants owned by Origin Energy Limited (ASX: ORG) and Santos Ltd (ASX: STO).

Motley Fool contributor Brendon Lau owns shares of Rio Tinto Ltd. and Westpac Banking. Follow me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/brenlau The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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