US, metal prices undercut market, even Rinker down

The stockmarket was softer yesterday after a pullback from the resources sector and a soft lead from the US.
The ASX200 index closed down 15 points to 5384.4, while the All Ordinaries slipped 14.8 points to 5352.9.
ABN AMRO Morgans director of equities Bill Chatterton said the big resource stocks had reversed the market's record high yesterday.
"It was a combination of a number of factors but some of the resources and banks took a bit off the top," Mr Chatterton said.
Rio Tinto shed $1.37 to $78.40, while rival BHP Billiton lost 64c to $27.28.
Materials group Rinker held on to most of Monday's 26 per cent gain, thanks the $16.8 billion takeover bid by Mexican outfit Cemex. Rinker slipped 4c to $18.55.
The big banks were mixed, with the National Australia Bank down 5c to $38.18, the Commonwealth up 26c to $47.70, Westpac 3c weaker at $23.95 and ANZ up 29c to $29.04. St George was down 4c at $32.41.
Bank of Queensland fell 8c to $16.37 and Bendigo Bank, which was up 22c on Monday after saying it would improve profit 10 per cent, lost all but a penny of that, closing down 21c at $16.37.
Ambitious Bundaberg building society Wide Bay Australia was unchanged at $11.80 after it pulled out of the bidding for Mackay rival Pioneer, which has not been traded for a fortnight. Pioneer will thus fall to BoQ at $4.78 a share.
Blood plasma company CSL slipped $1.13 to $56.09 and flu drug inventor Biota was down 2.5c at $1.32.
Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd was 17c weaker at $19.38. Fairfax rose 1c to $4.86, News Corp gained 15c to $28.35 and its non-voters jumped 4c to $27.21.
A fall in the oil price overnight forced the energy sector lower, with Woodside down $1 to $37.55, Santos down 11c to $10.59 and Oil Search 5c weaker at $3.42.
A big mover - 41 million shares moved - was Garden State Resources, noting further gas shows in its drill hole Paradox Basin 1 in Utah. The shares were only two bob six weeks ago but finished up 33c at $1.20.
In the golds, Lihir was down 8c to $2.75 after posting a sharp dip in third quarter gold production. The company, however, said it was on track for a strong end to the year.
Newmont Mining was unchanged at $5.82 and Newcrest gained 35c to $23.85.
Bendigo Mining was down a penny to 98.5c and Sino Gold up 10c at $4.90.

Australian Agricultural Company was up 5.5c to $1.73 after saying it had a good season.
In the retail sector, Coles Myer slipped 2c to $13.58, Woolworths edged up 9c to $20.69 and department store David Jones fell 3c to $3.62. Harvey Norman was off 3c to $3.62 and The Reject Shop fell 1c to $8.38.
Miller's Retail, undergoing reconstruction, was up 3c at $1.90, while the reliable Noni B was down 3c at $4.30
In the news, Macquarie Media's partly-paid securities rose 2c to $2.92 after the company said it was keen to buy more radio stations.
And Babcock & Brown Wind Partners Group slipped 0.5c to $1.50 after saying it remained confident of meeting its distribution guidance for 2006-07 of 12.5c per stapled security while its chief executive Peter O'Connell resigned.
Child care centre operator ABC Learning Centres gained 5c to $7.05 after officially completing its acquisition of Hutchison's Child Care Services.
The most traded stock was Telstra with 87.94 million shares changing hands, valued at $348.7 million.
The stock finished 5c higher at $3.96.