Another horrible day in paradise. The momentum to the downside picked up a pace as the market broke through support and combined with a better than expected jobs number, threw the towel in. After the slew of disasters from corporate Australia, it is hardly surprising that enthusiasm has gone out of the market. Big falls again in financials led the way after a positive opening and the Resources fell into step behind them. Stand out nastiness was felt in RIO Tinto Limited (A$65.14, -1.0%),BHP Billiton Limited (A$35.54, -1.8%) and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (A$5.36, -4.3%). Was sure the Iron Ore price held up pretty well last night. Did I miss something? Banks were trashed with Commonwealth Bank of Australia (A$73.51, -1.3%) looking especially unloved. QBE Insurance Group Limited (A$10.40, -5.5%) had another shocker today as did Macquarie Group Limited (A$51.32, -2.1%). In fact all the stocks that have given us so much performance this year are now dragging us into serious correction. Down from 5450 to 5050 is looking pretty serious! And we tried so hard to rally today, we really did. Hit 5115 early before it all went to custard although we did seem to find a bottom and close slightly better at 2063. The unemployment numbers seemed ok with 21,000 new jobs created and a headline at 5.8%.Maybe the strength in the jobs numbers was enough to rule out a rate cut. Maybe we just went straight through support and kept on going, whatever happened it is now 6 in a row. Even God rested on the seventh day, so tomorrow we will rally. Maybe!

• Defensives fared better than most with Wesfarmers Limited (A$41.11, -0.1%),Woolworths Limited (A$32.73, +0.5%),TLS# all doing a whole lot better than some, with even some pockets of green in places with Ramsay Health Care Limited (A$40.66, +3.6%),Westfield Retail Trust (A$2.91, +3.2%) and Crown Limited (A$16.62, +1.1%) some of the only bright spots.

• The lesser spotted crested winners today were rare indeed. Good bounce from Oz Minerals Limited (A$2.97, +12.1%) after yesterday’s pummelling, Kathmandu Holdings Limited (A$3.05, +5.2%),Westfield Retail Trust (A$2.91, +3.2%),Seven West Media Limited (A$2.16, +2.4%),Ramsay Health Care Limited (A$40.66, +3.6%),Tpg Telecom Limited (A$4.71, +2.8%) and Pacific Brands Limited (A$0.595, -2.5%) whereas losers were as plentiful as English batsmen terrorised by big Mitch, Transfield Services Limited (A$0.845, -13.8%),Energy Developments Limited (A$5.15, -6.9%),QBE Insurance Group Limited (A$10.40, -5.5%),McMillan Shakespeare Limited (A$11.07, -4.9%),Seven Group Holdings Limited (A$7.37, -4.7%),Magellan Financial Group Limited (A$9.85, -3.0%),Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (A$5.36, -4.3%) and Mesoblast Limited (A$5.53, -3.0%). The biggest loser was Codan Limited (A$0.805, -38.1%) which surprisingly is struggling to sell its metal detectors! Who would have thought!

• Volume picked up worryingly at around $5 bn whilst Asian markets were weaker as well as Uncle Ben is looking increasingly like the Grinch that stole Xmas.

• Aussie dollar keeps toying with breaking down too, around 90 cents while Bitcons were under $1000.And it was 30 years ago today that the Aussie floated on worlds currency markets. Happy birthday to the little Aussie battler. And in 30 years it is unchanged! 90cents.

Stocks and Stories

• IPO’s are faring badly at the moment with the market not conducive to new faces. #NEC# suffered as did Dicksmith and Freelancer and recent fave #VED# also fell slightly.

• AWE Limited (A$1.185, unch) announced that it had locked in a 4 year facility for $300m.

• Have to love accountants. APN has revised up its loss for 2012 by $51.5 million to $483.5 million, due to an “accounting error”. It had previously booked a full-year loss of $432 million.

• Transfield Services Limited (A$0.845, -13.8%) fell heavily again. Seems like Groundhog day for these guys as the investor day did not dispel the unease in mining services in general and TSE in particular.

• Flexigroup Limited (A$4.12, -0.5%) today announced that they are buying the ANZ Thinksmart business for $43m.#TSM# clearly the big winner in this deal as the Australian/NZ operation were hardly a massive contributor to the bottom line so $43m look s great price. Yesterday the entire market cap of Thinksmart was only $45m!!!And they make most of their money in the UK!

Tomorrows News Today

• Facebook is set to join the S&P 500 and the 100!

• Here’s a phrase we seem to hear a lot of, ”Cost Blowout”. Apparently the NBN cost has blown out and now the timetable is blowing out too. Chevron’s massive LNG project has now blown out from $43bn now to $54bn.Hardly surprising really that GM have taken their bat and ball and gone home. The problem of ridiculous housing prices is that wages have to be silly too. Pretty soon the whole Ponzi scheme gets a little hard to sustain. Luckily we have politicians with vision, foresight and ideas to solve this crisis. Just have to elect them next time!

• Cinda, the Chinese bad bank has jumped 20% on listing ! Seems they know how to run an IPO.

• Looks like Congress is set to approve a new budget deal which ushers in the taper!

• Standard & Poor’s (S&P) credit ratings agency has lowered its U.S. growth forecast warning of “significant downside risks” from federal spending cuts. “We now expect the world’s biggest economy to expand 2.6 percent next year, down from our forecast of 3.1 percent at last quarter’s Credit Conditions Committee meeting,” it added.

• A top official at the European Central Bank has signalled it will try to force euro zone banks to hold capital against sovereign bonds, in an attempt to stop weak lenders using its cash to hoover up the debts of crisis-hit countries.

• And finally a worldwide man hunt has been launched for the man who stood beside Obama at Mandela’s memorial pretending to be the sign language translator. Amazing that no one spotted the fake. Obviously all looking at the guy doing the hand signals.

Clarence