The Australian sharemarket will today be fighting against serious a setback in global markets on Friday due to Wall Street's Dow crashing to a 240-point or 2.16 per cent deficit while the technologies also found it hard going.
The lack of investor support provided a dismal end to the session and the quarter.
The US slide sent the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to its biggest quarterly drop since 2008, after reports from China and Germany fuelled concerns the global economy is slowing.
European sharemarkets closed weaker, extending the Stoxx Europe 600 Index's largest quarterly decline since 2008.
European inflation unexpectedly accelerated to the fastest in almost three years in September, complicating the European Central Bank's task as it fights the region's worsening sovereign-debt crisis.
The annual rate of inflation in the 17 countries that share the euro surged to its highest level in almost three years in September, while the number of people without work fell slightly.
On the home front, shares rose strongly for most of the week but closed flat on Friday with the ASX 200 up 0.3 of a point at 4008.5 and the All Ords up 2.2 points at 4070.1.
The December SPI200 contract is currently down 81 points at 3919.
In commodities, the WTI November contract fell $2.94 to $79.20 barrel.
Gold rallied $4.90 to $1,620.40 oz on the October contract while the AUD is US96.75c
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Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange and Singapore Exchange are reported to have held high-level discussions about a joint bid for the London Metal Exchange.
The LME said a week ago that it had been approached by several suitors and would start a formal review of offers that people familiar with the matter say could value the market-leading platform at about one billion pounds ($1.56 billion).
In another development, McGraw-Hill is said to be in advanced talks with CME Group to combine stockmarket icons such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 into a joint venture that would give the firms more sway over investors and exchanges around the world.
Talks to form a joint venture between McGraw-Hill's S&P Indices business and CME's Dow Jones Indices unit began more than a year ago and could still fall apart.
If a deal goes through, the combined indexes business venture would be managed by McGraw-Hill, and the New York company.
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UNIVERSAL COAL PLC (UNV) has secured the Donkin licence area, adjacent to the Somerville coking coal project in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, on a farm-in basis.
UNV shares on Friday rise 0.5c to 21c, not a bad price to pay for a coal punt.
Based on historical drilling data, the property has a gross historical JORC Inferred resource of 42.4Mt, covering the northern extent of a farm area of 1,178 hectares, with the potential for coking coal and open pit access.
Historical data shows a coal zone of up to 20m thick present on the northern section of the property. The depth to the coal zone is anticipated as being between 20-70m.
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One of Ferret's Stocks to Watch, MESOBLAST (MSB), has done well on the week despite dipping 7c on Friday to $8.09 compared with $7.83 a week ago.
The company this week announced it had entered into a strategic alliance with the Lonza Group for clinical and long-term commercial production of Mesoblast's off-the-shelf (allogeneic) adult stem cell products.
The alliance will provide Mesoblast with significant commercial advantages, including certainty of capacity to meet long-term global supply of its proprietary Mesenchymal Precursor Cell (MPC) products.
Lonza will supply Mesoblast's clinical and long-term commercial MPC product needs globally.
Mesoblast can trigger a process requiring Lonza to construct a purpose-built manufacturing facility exclusively for Mesoblast's marketed products.
In return, Mesoblast will purchase agreed quantities of marketed products from the facility.
Mesoblast can exercise its right to buy out this manufacturing facility at a pre-agreed purchase price two years after the facility receives regulatory approval.
Mesoblast will have exclusive access to Lonza's cell therapy facilities in Singapore for the manufacture of allogeneic cell therapy products, subject to certain exceptions.
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ATLANTIC (ATI) failed to fire very much action in the market last week, reflected by the shares ending steady on Friday at $1.45.
The company disclosed an interesting agreement with Vietnam's Institute of Mining Science & Metallurgy (Vimluki) to undertake a development study of Vietnam's bauxite extraction and supply chain industry, particularly in the central highlands of the country.
The Central highlands region contains one of the world's most significant high-quality bauxite resources, which to date has been largely undeveloped.
The development study will assess the 'mine-rail-port' proposal submitted by Atlantic to local and national authorities, and which formed the basis of Atlantic's submission for consideration in the re-write of the national master-plan for the industry.
The study is an important step in achieving Atlantic's objectives and in undertaking a full feasibility study of an integrated long-term 'mine-rail-port' bauxite supply chain solution, and forming a joint venture to develop and obtain the necessary approvals for the project.
Key project participants including environmental stakeholders, a possible funding structure and fiscal regime will be identified in the study.
Atlantic is proposing a large-scale bauxite mining operation, to be developed in stages, and a 260 kilometre third-party access heavy-haul rail line which will transport mined bauxite from the central highlands to the coast where bulk port infrastructure will be built.
A refinery and smelting facility may be built in Vietnam at a later stage.
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There is always money in waste and TOX FREE SOLUTIONS (TOX) is no exception.
The shares posted a modest 2c rise to $2.12 on Thursday but the next day gave it back.
All the same, the company looks prospective.
The company has entered into an agreement to acquire Pilbara Waste Pty Ltd, based in Port Hedland, Western Australia, for $4.54 million in cash.
The acquisition is subject to due diligence with completion is expected to occur in October.
In addition, Tox Free will assume the current vehicle finance leases to the value of $1 million.
Tox Free is the dominant waste management provider in the northwest region of the Pilbara, providing industrial services, solid, liquid and hazardous waste management.
The company expects to grow the services offered in the Pilbara region in the medium term through its expertise in servicing the resource sector.
The acquisition will further position Tox Free as a leading provider of industrial and waste management services in the region
