Good morning,

Asian developer Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Co has approached Australia's biggest energy firms for a joint venture or supply pact to underpin an LNG import terminal which would ease a looming eastern seaboard gas shortfall.

The jousting between BHP and Anglo American may be the biggest game in global mining, but the sideshow it's creating in Queensland offers a generational opportunity for local mining investors. 

Global dairy giant Fonterra is going back to basics and will sell famous Australian cheese brands Bega, Perfect Italiano and Western Star butter in a broadscale exit from consumer businesses to focus on its 'core' function of collecting, processing and selling milk. 

Five things to know this morning

1. ASX futures are weaker after the US Dow index briefly topped 40,000 points for the first time on Walmart's strong quarterly results before joining the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes to close a few points lower.
2. An unexpectedly-large rise in the unemployment rate has again fuelled speculation that interest rates could be cut by the year's end, sending the sharemarket soaring as bond yields tumbled.
3. Incitec Pivot is closing in on a deal for Indonesian state-owned PT Pupuk Kalimantan Timur to buy its fertiliser business, which was written down by $500m in its half-year accounts.
4. Former Star chairman David Foster is being paid as much as $40,000 per month as interim chief executive of the troubled casino group, appearing to counter a submission by the company’s top lawyer that he no longer had an executive role.
5. Some of Australia’s oldest family owned wineries have slammed the federal government’s budget for its failure to address the current crisis in the wine industry caused by rising costs, high interest rates and depressed consumer demand.