Crown slides on Wynn scrapping talks: Aus shares steady at noon on mixed news

The Australian share market opened lower on the back of negative Wall Street leads as US investors await earnings season kick off. However, the local bourse has now recouped early selling is tracking slightly higher.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is 1 point higher at 6,223 at noon. On the futures market the SPI is 10 points higher, and if the index ends higher today, it will mark the third day of gains and take the market back to those new 10-year highs.

Company news

Gold producer, St Barbara (ASX:SBM) is set buy the Green Dam Nickel/Gold Project in Western Australia for $700,000 cash. SBM is snapping up the project from manganese lithium focused company Element 25 (ASX:E25). SBM will also grant E25 a 2 per cent net smelter royalty on all future production from the Green Dam Project. Shares in St Barbara (ASX:SBM) are trading 3.3 per cent higher at $3.41 at noon.

Buddy Technologies' (ASX:BUD) smart lighting business, LIFX will be expanding its presence in the US, across US Best Buy stores (just over 1,000 stores) to an additional display area. Shares in Buddy Technologies (ASX:BUD) are trading 7.1 per cent higher at $0.07 at noon.

Best and worst performers

The best performing sector is Info Tech adding 0.96 per cent followed by Financials, Industrials, Consumer Staples, Health Care and A-Reits/Property. While the worst performing sector is Energy, falling 0.9 per cent.

The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Seven West Media Limited (ASX:SWM), rising 6.2 per cent to $0.52 after completed the $20.75 million sale of its 50 per cent stake in Yahoo7, after launching its 7NEWS.com.au website which allegedly has a larger daily audience than Yahoo7. Following is shares in St Barbara Limited (ASX:SBM) and Webjet Limited (ASX:WEB).

The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Crown Resorts Limited (ASX:CWN), dropping 8.6 per cent to $12.84 after casino giant Wynn scrapped discussions over a potential $10 billion takeover offer. Followed by shares in Janus Henderson Group Plc (ASX:JHG) and Independence Group NL (ASX:IGO).

Asian markets

Japan’s Nikkei has lost 0.9 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has lost 0.8 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has lost 0.9 per cent.

Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at $US1,303 an ounce.
Iron ore price fell 0.5 per cent to U$94.85
Iron ore futures are pointing to a fall of 1 per cent.
One Australian dollar is buying 71.15 US cents.