The market is down 12. The SFE Future were down 22 this morning.

Wall St. closed up 3. Dow up 82 at best and down 20 worst. The S&P 500 broke a run of four consecutive rises. Metals did well, as did the oil price which looks to have broken upwards. Gold fell $11.

  • Wesfarmers down 7.5% first thing — Woolworths (WOW) to compete with Bunnings (owned by WES) in home hardware — spends $87m to buy Danks. Australia’s second largest hardware distributor — see below. WES also ex dividend 60c today. Talk of Wesfarmers (WES) appointing Macquarie Capital to consider a part sale of its pub operations.
  • Fairfax Media has had its target price increased by five different brokers this morning post its results. Price up 1 cent today.
  • Billabong down 3.5% early on … they have triggered a MACD sell signal and an RSI sell signal — recent rally coming to an end after results.
  • Computershare (CPU) has acquired Denmark’s I-nvestor for $US12.4m. No material impact on earnings expected.

Results Today…

  • Fosters (FGL) — Looks in line — maybe a touch below some expectations.
  • Suncorp-Metway (SUN) — Lower end of previous company guidance.
  • Oil Search Ltd (OSH) — Interim result looks above expectations — Awarded exploration licences in PNG. Selling 3.5% of PNG LNG.
  • Mirvac Group (MGR) — $1.08bn loss after writedowns — looks in line.
  • Aristocrat Leisure (ALL) — In line with company guidance. Loss $33m.
  • Australian Worldwide (AWE) — Well below a big range of expectations. Flag a fall in production this year. Needs drilling success.
  • APA Group (APA) — Profit up 17%. Company says a good result in current climate.
  • Seek Limited (SEK) — EBITDA number above company guidance but NPAT number a touch below.
  • Hastie Group Limited (HST) — Profit up 53%. Revenue up 40%. “Solid order book … well placed”. Earnings to recover as the economy strengthens.
  • Flight Centre (FLT) — In line with recent profit upgrade on August 11th (the share price jumped 38% in two days after it).

Other broker stuff…

  • Credit Suisse ups Westfield (WDC) to Outperform from Neutral and target price to 1325c from 1135c.
  • Citi maintains Buy on Santos (STO) and 2090c target price (42.7% above current share price).
  • Merrill Lynch cuts ConnectEast (CEU) target price to 40c from 50c and maintains Underperform.
  • UBS ups Austereo (AEO) to 175c from 170c and maintains Buy.
  • RBS Equities ups Telstra to Buy from Hold with and lifts target price to 450c from 430c.
  • Credit Suisse cut Lend Lease (LLC) to Underperform from Neutral but lifts target price to 850c from 775c.

The Dow Futures are down 11 at midday.

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