Welcome to Wednesday. Here are the five things I'm looking at today on the Australian sharemarket.
- The S&P/ ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has opened flat, following small gains on Wall Street overnight.The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2% and the broader S&P 500 0.1% while the tech-heavy NASDAQ climbed 0.3%.Crude oil prices were flat overnight, with Brent oil adding 0.3% to US$60.70 per barrel while iron ore was smacked down below US$60 per tonne, falling to US$59.73 per tonne.
The Australian dollar is steady against the US dollar and is currently buying 77.8 US cents.
- With the iron ore price under US$60 per tonne, Australia's junior iron ore producers look headed for an early dumping at the start of trading. The likes of Atlas Iron Limited (ASX: AGO), Mount Gibson Iron Limited (ASX: MGX), BC Iron Limited (ASX: BCI), Arrium Limited (ASX: ARI) and Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN) could feel the heat.Many of the above have all-in costs well above the current iron ore price and further writedowns and financial losses appear in store. How long they can keep going remains to be seen, particularly since more supply is coming online – while demand from China is likely to slow or even fall.
- Continuing that iron ore thread, Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) is attempting to restructure some of its massive debt load and push it further out as well as eliminate or waive some of all of the restrictive covenants contained in some of the debt Notes.It's the third time in 30 months the company has restructured its debt facilities mostly as a result of the lower iron ore price. Fortescue had around US$7.5 billion of net debt at the end of December 2014. You can read more about the current refinancing plans here.
- Tweet of the Day
National Australia Bank will need more than remorse to satisfy Senate grilling https://t.co/D3Ot73hdmw via @theage
Adele Ferguson (@adele_ferguson) March 5, 2015Will this finally prompt the government and regulators to take more drastic action?
- Stock of the Day– brought to you by Ryan Newman – Acrux Limited (ASX: ACR). The producer of testosterone treatment Axiron, Acrux has seen its shares slammed down 43% recently. Want to know why?
