Welcome to Tuesday. Here are the five things I'm looking at today on the Australian sharemarket.
- The S&P/ ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has opened 0.2% lower today. Overnight on Wall Street, markets closed mixed with the Down Jones Industrial Average up 0.1%, the S&P 500 down 0.2% and the NASDAQ flat.
The big miners are getting crunched again, as the iron ore price drops back below US$80 per tonne.
- Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) has gone into a trading halt after accidentally releasing unaudited profit results data in an Excel spreadsheet on its website on Friday.
The bank usually posts an Excel workbook on its website to help fund managers and analysts to prepare for its 2014 financial results.ANZ Bank is set to release its results to the market this Friday, and is expected to report full year cash earnings of more than $7.1 billion, according to the released data. That would imply growth of 7.6% over last year's $6.6 billion. - Education provider Vocation Ltd (ASX: VET) has seen its share price crunched, after the company agreed to a deal with the Victorian government that resulted in the loss of close to $20 million in funding. Previously, the company had said on three separate occasions that negotiations were unlikely to result in a material change.Investors are clearly furious with company management for what they see as misleading statements.
- Tweet of the Day
Feeding ideas to the Rio Tinto board? Citi analysts "continue to believe that Alcan is worth more outside of Rio than within" #ausbiz
Rudi Filapek-Vandyck (@Filapek) October 27, 2014
Will Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) do a BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) and hive off its 'non-core' assets? - Stock of the Day – brought to you by Ryan Newman – Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA). Ryan asks if now is the time to buy Australia's largest bank, despite the share price soaring above $80.
