Stocks on Wall Street, which initially made early gains, eventually fell overnight after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points but gave little indication over whether or not it would make further interest rate cuts in the future.
Closer to home, the Australian market closed the day near flat with the S&P-ASX 200 index slipping by 9.6 points to 5585.8, while the All Ordinaries fell 4.3 points to close at 5652.7.
The mining majors were mixed with BHP Billiton closing 63c higher at $42.90, while its takeover target Rio Tinto fell 8c to close at $136.
BHP today approved the $US1.9 billion expansion project at Worsley Alumina in Western Australia which will lift capacity of the refinery from 3.5 million tonnes per annum of alumina to 4.6Mtpa through expanded mining operations, additional refinery capacity and upgraded port facilities.
The bulk of commodities on the London Metal Exchange took a tumble last night with three-month nickel slipping $100 to $28,550 per tonne, while zinc fell $10 to 2230/t, tin dropped $530 to $23,175/t and aluminium shed $57 to 2907/t.
However, copper gained $9 to close at $8549/t on continuing strike action at Codelco’s operations in Chile as well as Mexico's Cananea mine shutdown.
JPMorgan analyst Michael Jansen told Dow Jones newswires he expects China to start to increase its copper imports in another 4-6 weeks and this, added to problems affecting production from strikes, suggests the copper price will most likely push higher.
Spot gold was trading higher today after the US Federal Reserve left the door open for further rate cuts, while the rise in oil was a sign the market remained concerned about the potential for further bearish economic news, Commodity Broking Services analyst Jonathan Barratt told Dow Jones.
Spot gold was trading $5.25 higher at $875.2 per ounce at 345pm EST.
Fortescue Metals Group gained A38c to close at $7.79 on reports in today’s The Australian Financial Review that a Chinese-based source said Baosteel – which ended talks over the purchase of a 16.5% stake in FMG earlier this year – still wanted to acquire the stake.
An FMG spokesperson told MiningNews.net that the company would not comment on the matter.
Meantime, Alumina expects the insatiable Chinese appetite for aluminum is set to keep the market for the metal strong.
“Aluminum prices are expected to remain robust,” Alumina chief executive John Marlay told shareholders at the miner's annual general meeting in Melbourne.
Marlay said Chinese demand for aluminum was set to grow by 24% in 2008, while global aluminum demand is set to rise by 9%.
Big movers on the Final call watchlist today include iron ore play Murchison Metals which closed 28c higher at $4.80, and Lihir Gold which gained 14c to $3.08.
Biggest mover by percentage on the watchlist was Coziron Resources which closed 5c higher at 15c after inking a heads of agreement over a joint venture with PT Galian Endapan Buana to develop the AGAM iron sand project in West Sumatra, Indonesia.
