The market is down 35. The SFE Futures were down 9 this morning.

Wall Street closed up 53 overnight. Dow was up 87 at best and down 27 at worst. The FOMC Meeting was a bit of a non-event with the Federal Reserve reiterating their usual line — “exceptionally low interest rates for an extended period of time”. Main news was a Spanish credit rating downgrade which kept Europe in the dumps. Metals were mostly down overnight on the LME, oil price up $1.59 to $83.30, Gold up $11 to $1173 and the Aussie dollar improved to 92.53c versus 91.57c.

In the news today…

  • ANZ Bank (ANZ) — Interim Results — Announced a slightly better-than-expected 1st half cash net profit of $2.376bn, up 20% on last year. Analysts on average expected $2.286bn. The market seems to be disappointed with their dividend. Declared an interim dividend of 52c, analysts were expecting 55c-62c. ANZ down nearly 2% to 2435c.
  • Mirvac Group (MGR) bids for Westpac Office Trust (WOT) — MGR is offering 0.597 of their securities or 86c for each WOT security, subject to a $200m cap on the cash component. MGR down 1.74% to 140.5c and WOT up 3c o 85c.
  • Asciano (AIO) says they are yet to see signs of a sustainable recovery in their businesses and remains cautious about their FY outlook despite their shipping and freight volumes in the 3Q being in line with expectations. AIO down 4.5c to 167.5c.
  • Macarthur Coal (MCC) has extended their takeover bid for Gloucester Coal (GCL) despite the major shareholders no longer supporting the bid. MCC down 14c to 1576c.
  • Analysts expect Macquarie Group (MQG) to announce a FY net profit of around $1bn when they announce their results tomorrow. Their dividend is expected to remain flat. MQG down 56c to 4871c.
  • Fortescue Metals (FMG) announced a UK court has ruled in favour of shipping contractor Zodiac. FMG will pay damages of around $US78m. FMG down 9c to 476c.
  • Street Talk says one of the rumours doing the rounds involves takeover target Lihir Gold (LGL) splitting their Papua New Guinea assets from their West African operations to encourage a joint bid. NCM down 21c to 3402c and LGL down 1c to 391c.
  • Australian Pharmaceuticals (API) has confirmed their annual profit guidance after increasing their 1H net profit by more than 50%. Revenue increased by 6.7% to $1.85bn and declared an interim dividend of 1c. API unchanged at 58c.
  • Atlas Iron (AGO) has raised $63.5m at 249c to capitalise on strong iron ore prices. AGP down 17c to 252c.
  • No major stocks hitting 52 week highs.

The Dow Futures were down 13 at midday.

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