Our market is down 28. The SFE Futures were down 31 this morning.

Wall Street fell 103 overnight and closed below 10,000 for the first time in 3 months. It is 11 years since the Dow Jones first hit 10,000, in other words, the US equity market has gone nowhere in 11 years. The Dow was up 16 at best and down 108 at worst. Commodities did OK. Metals up. Gold put on $13 to $1066 and oil was flat at $71.67. The Aussie dollar fell slightly to 86.47c from 86.63c yesterday morning.

Results season is in full swing…

  • Cochlear (COH) — interims result better than expected — profit up 8% to $72.5m ahead of forecasts for $68.5m. COH up 4.15% to 6394c.
  • Bradken (BKN) — interims result ahead of expectations — made $25.7m, down 26.4%, but ahead of Patersons’ expectations of $21m. They forecast improving trading conditions in the 2H. Patersons maintain their BUY recommendation. BKN up 11.6% to 653c.
  • Alumina (AWC) — below expectations but outlook improves. Announced a net loss of $26m and an underlying loss of $2m. AWC down 2.2% to 156.5c.
  • Reckon (RKN) — in line with expectations — announces a 20% rise in net profit to $13.6m, consensus was for $13m. Also announced a share buyback. Price up 1.6% to 188c.
  • Big day tomorrow on the results front — BHP Billiton (BHP, Boral (BLD), Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Computershare (CPU), Stockland Group (SGP) and SMS Management all announce interim results.

In other news…

  • Macquarie Group (MQG) getting hammered — down 6.5% to 4706c — after releasing their operational briefing this morning. FY guidance has come in slightly below consensus of $1.1bn. They expect 2H10 profit to be in line with 1H10 but has the potential to be 10% higher than 1H10, which implies FY guidance of $960m-$1bn.
  • David Jones (DJS) – 2Q10 Sales Numbers — 2Q like-for-like sales up 3.1% and more significantly lifts 1H profit guidance increased to around 10% from 0-5% and 2H guidance to 5-10% from 0-5%. Patersons maintain their Hold recommendation. Up 5c to 466c.
  • AWB Ltd (AWB) down 1c to 99c — a 5 month low — on the back of a class action against them starting today in Federal Court.
  • Regulatory ruling on the AXA bid tomorrow — AMP is due to receive its adjudication from the ACCC tomorrow after an investigation into the implications of its $4.4 billion offer for AXA AP’s Australasian businesses. Their offer lapsed after they made it final and the NAB counterbid. The ACCC report into the NAB bid is likely next month. AMP down 4c to 621c.
  • Tabcorp Holdings (TAH) goes 30c ex dividend today. TAH down 34c to 681c.

The Dow Futures were down 15 at midday.