With the key US indexes finishing slightly down, the Australian market again followed its lead with the All Ordinaries finishing 0.84% or 40.4 points down to 4774.1 points and the S&P-ASX 200 closing 0.7% or 33.5 points down to 4761.1 points.
The good news today for Australia was a larger-than-expected trade surplus of $1.36 billion for August.
It is the largest monthly surplus since 1997, up from a revised deficit of $697 million in July.
"At least we have entered the current period of turbulence in relatively good shape,” ANZ economist Alex Joiner told Dow Jones Newswires.
"In an environment of strong demand for resources, the weaker Australian dollar means higher revenues for mining exports, as commodities are priced in US dollars."
BHP Billiton finished 4% down in the United Kingdom overnight and closed 3.3% or $1.08 down to $31.67 today.
Meanwhile, Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese told the Melbourne Mining Club today that the company is continuing to target $US10 billion in divestments.
Albanese said BHP’s takeover offer still undervalued the company and the current financial turmoil had no impact on the company’s rejection of the bid.
Rio shares closed 3.95% or $3.75 down to $91.25 today.
JPMorgan today cut Fortescue Metals Group’s target share price to $5.41 from $10.31 on concerns that it will be unable to fund an expansion to 160 million tonnes a year.
FMG shares dropped more than 8% or 46c to $4.85 today.
Still on iron ore plays, Merrill Lynch today downgraded Murchison Metals’ price objective from $6 to $2 and cut Mount Gibson’s price target to $3.50 from $5.
Murchison shed more than 9% or 12c today to $1.14, while Mount Gibson finished 6c down to $1.61.
The poorest performer of the day was Queensland Mining Corp, which debuted on the bourse at 50c this morning and then dropped 60% or 30c to close at 20c.
The other new listing today, Base Iron, fared better, closing at its 20c issue price.
ElDore Mining jumped nearly 47% or 0.7c to 2.2c after releasing drilling results from its Burkina Faso gold project, while Atomic Resources soared 62% or 6.5c to 17c on no news at all.
Despite a resource upgrade, Atlas Iron closed 9% or 14.5c down to $1.455, while OZ Minerals dropped more than 5% or 9c to $1.53.
The big news of the day was CBH Resources’ announcement of a proposed hostile takeover of rival Perilya, which boosted both companies.
CBH closed more than 8% or 0.6c up to 7.9c, while Perilya gained nearly 17% or 4.5c to 31.5c.
Finally, the news of a strike at Xstrata’s Kidd Creek copper mine in Canada and the shutdown of Alcoa’s Rockdale smelter in the US will not be enough to boost base metal prices, analysts say, as any short-term production disruption is overshadowed by consumer slowdown.
