The Reserve Bank of Australia minutes from this month's meeting have, in the words of Westpac chief economist Bill Evans, confirmed the "confident approach" apparent from the last Statement on Monetary Policy. That's when the RBA upgraded its assessment of unemployment and growth.

"There is also a rather curious discussion around arguments that had been advanced by various commentators. The arguments are set out but they make no qualitative assessment of their reliability," Mr Evans writes.

At lunch time today the S&P/ASX 200 is at 5645 points, down 48 points from yesterday's session. Pointing out the obvious, it just 45 points away from the pyschological barrier of 5600, which the ASX last saw in December 2016. The Nikkei is down 1 per cent and the Hang Seng is down 1.2 per cent.

So far CSL has taken 6.5 points off the index. It is down 2.14 per cent to $178.40. Commonwealth Bank has taken 3 points with a 0.7 per cent drop to $68.04.

AMP is down again, by 3.9 per cent to $2.49 and software company Altium is down 8.3 per cent to $21.64, apparently after catching a cold from NASDAQ.

The deadline for CKI to reform its $13 billion takeover offer for gas pipeline company APA to appease government foreign ownership concerns is rapidly approaching but silence from CKI's camp may indicate the deal is now dead. Earlier this month, the government gave a 'preliminary' rejection to Hong Kong-based utility firm CKI's $13 billion takeover proposal for Australian gas pipeline company APA, labelling it "contrary to the national interest".

In rejecting the deal, the Foreign Investment Review Board said as APA controls the majority of Australia's gas pipelines, CKI's takeover would concentrate ownership of this critical energy network under a single foreign company. However, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg left the door open for a revised offer, giving CKI a two week deadline. It falls due this week.

Since this initial decision, CKI has remained silent on its intentions, and as the days count down the lack of movement from the Hong Kong utility has the market speculating that CKI will walk away from the deal. "It's fair to assume this deal is dead in the water," one Australian analyst, who preferred not to be named, told Fairfax Media.

The full story by Cole Latimer will be online soon.

UBS has been slapped with a $120,000 fine from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission after poorly trained staff wrongly classified on-market buy-backs that UBS was conducting on behalf of six ASX-listed companies. UBS was supposed to buy the shares in the ordinary course of trading. But 328 trades (out of nearly 200,000) were internal crosses and reported as Trades with Price Improvement, known as NXXT. The trades should have been done through an order book without any knowledge of the identity of the counter party.

About 18 million shares were purchased as NXXT, which is not permitted for on-market buy backs. UBS has done more training and updated the equities desk manual since ASIC brought the breach to its attention.

Nissan Motor Co's high-flying chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested Monday and will be dismissed after he allegedly under-reported his income and engaged in other misconduct, the company said. The Japanese automaker's CEO Hiroto Saikawa confirmed that Ghosn was arrested after being questioned by prosecutors following his arrival Japan earlier in the day. Trading in Nissan shares has not started yet.

It was a stunning development that left employees "bewildered" and fellow executives shocked and will pose a daunting test for the Nissan-Renault- Mitsubishi alliance, one of the world's biggest automakers. The Yokohama-based company said the alleged violations involving millions of dollars by Ghosn, 64, and another executive were discovered during a months' long investigation that was instigated by a whistleblower.

Taking a closer look at Fletcher Building, shares have dived to a six-year low of $4.73 on the ASX or a 14-year low of $NZ5.06 in New Zealand. Management said this morning earnings before significant items will be 10 per cent lower for the half year ending December 2018, compared to the same period in 2017. This is due to "emerging challenging Australian trading conditions" and the timing of house sales in Fletcher's residential division. It lowered guidance for the 2018-19 year to be between $630 million and $680 million due to the slowdown in the Australian housing market.

"While the company continues to target a result at the top end of this range, it is prudent at this stage in the year to highlight that 2018-19 earning will be impacted by the outage at the Golden Bay Cement plant, the slowdown in the Australian residential market, and the reduction in Land Development earnings compared to last year," the company's statement said. While Fletchers was planning to recommence dividends, this will now depend on trading conditions.

New chief executive Ross Taylor told the company's annual general meeting New Zealand's housing market is softer but "present levels of activity are sustainable" in the medium term as long as immigration levels are "not overly curtailed."

"In Australia, residential activity accounts for about 40 per cent of our end market exposure. Here we have seen a sharp contraction in new residential consents in the most recent quarter. This is particularly evident in the apartment or multifamily portion of the market," he said. The Australian team is 'factoring in a weaker Australian residential market than we had previously assumed". However, the project pipeline on the east coast of the continent looks strong for the medium term.

The S&P/ASX200 has dropped 17 points, or 0.3 per cent on opening.

Fletcher Building is down 8.1 per cent to $4.76 after announcing earnings for the half year ending in December will be 10 per cent lower. And information technology stocks have been hit by the wave of negativity from NASDAQ's 3 per cent decline overnight. Appen is down 5.6 per cent to $12.55, Afterpay Touch is down 4.7 per cent to $11.21, and Xero is down 2.9 per cent to $38.62.

Meanwhile milk companies are doing well with A2 Milk up 4.4 per cent to $10.23 after management told shareholders its position in China is "strong and growing".

John "Harto" Hartigan is resigning from the board of Prime Media Group. In his speech to the company's annual general meeting this morning he said it had been a privilege to chair Prime "during a period of significant challenge and change", but he will leave in 2019. Harto was chief executive and chairman head of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in Australia until 2011, when he was replaced by Kim Williams.

"So after almost five years as chair and with the program supply agreement [with Seven] locked in, I believe it is the right time to deliver a smooth transition to new leadership," he says.

"Over the coming months, the nomination and remuneration committee will lead the renewal process to ensure the best candidates are available to lead Prime through the challenges being faced by regional free-to-air television.".

Payment platform Zip will be rolled out through Bunnings stores from early December, it announced this morning. Zip offers point of sale credit and requires a minimum $40 repayment every month and charges a $6 monthly fee unless the account balance is $0.

Last year the Australian Financial Review's Rear Window column wrote that Melbourne lawyer Philip Crutchfield is a non-executive director of Zip and also sometimes acts on behalf of the corporate regulator, ASIC, which has launched an inquiry into buy now pay later services. Zip shares last traded at 93 cents.

The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) this morning revealed a loss of $68.4 million for the six months ending September 30, however it recorded an operating profit of nearly $25 million from revenue of $220 million. The statutory loss was driven by a $113.6 million change in the market value of its livestock. Analysts were expecting revenue of $305 million, according to Bloomberg.

Chief executive Hugh Killen said weather and macro trends have affected the company's financial performance.

"The increase in global beef supply, which is likely to extend into 2019, has led to competitive pressure on pricing, however our Wagyu revenue for the half was up, driven by increased sales volumes," he said.

AACo shares last traded at $1.23