Market down 77 on profit taking ahead of long weekend and perhaps in reaction to a market that went up 88 yesterday on a 104 point fall in Wall St. Option expiry may have something to do with it. Financials down 1.7% after strong rise yesterday post the ANZ results. Resources down with Woodside and Newcrest both struggling. Light volumes today.

Dow up 43or 0.34%. NASDAQ outperformed up 1.19%. Volume traded was 15% below average. There were 113 sets of results. Some good results especially from Tech stocks. Some poor after hours announcements from Apple, Amazon and Starbucks give us a pretty shabby lead into the Wall St session tonight. Bond insurers smashed on Ambac results. A $6bn takeover adds some hope that credit markets are improving and ambition returning..."Getting back to normal". Boeing up 4.5% after better than expected results.

Semiconductor stocks up 4.1% on good results from Broadcom. Tech sector up 1.4%. Apple up 1.7% in normal trade then down after hours on good results but lower guidance. Financials generally down (sector down 0.8%) with falls in Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and AIG. Telecoms up with rises in AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. More fund managers calling the bottom. The Bear Stearns bail out has so far marked the bottom. US mortgage applications fell 14.2% last week. Weekly crude inventory numbers saw stockpiles up more than expected.

Both BHP and RIO up in ADR form overnight, 2.81% and 2.07% respectively. BHP down 51c to 4459c. RIO down 184c to 14535c. Metalsmostly down overnight – Zinc down 1.4%, Copper down 1.7% and Nickel down 0.7%. Aluminium up 0.4%. Zinifex down 6c to 1029c.

Oil price up 11c to $119.28 after weekly oil inventories exceeded analysts' expectations. Woodside down 113c to 5908c. Golddown $16.20 to $909.00. Newcrest down 138c to 2996c. US Bondsdown with the 10 year yield up to 3.73%.