Thanks guys for your comments.I am aware of the fundamental...

Thanks guys for your comments.

I am aware of the fundamental differences in terms of gearing between RIO and BHP and that is a likely driver in terms of their % fall to here. But despite BHP's much lower gearing, could BHP still hit cashflow problems as a result of commodity price falls? Or a collapse in confidence in BHP as well?

Robbbbbb - Ignoring fundamentals, I'd appreciate any other thoughts/comments from you (or anyone else) on where you see differences in the charts technically. What I see is very very similar charts. The BHP bid for RIO is only the last 18 months, yet prior to that period they both tracked each other closely. Maybe its just RIO locking in a bottom and it bounces back quickly?

Fundamentally, it seems quite possible that RIO's debt associated with the crazy buy of Alcan at the top (in the last 12mths) is causing the RIO chart pattern to now stray from the BHP chart. But their long term trendlines look very similar and if RIO's gone back there, it appears to me BHP is quite likely to follow (at some stage) - even if no reasons are apparent right now.