The market is down 41. The SFE Futures were up 3 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 43 on Friday. Dow up 16 at best and down 80 at worst. The S&P 500 closed up 0.1% and was 2.2% higher for the week. Dow Futures down 69 this morning after the US government failed on Sunday to agree on a deal to raise the debt ceiling as the August 2 deadline approaches. The NASDAQ was up 0.9% to hit a 10-year high as tech stocks posted positive results. The oil price was up 74c to $99.87 and the Gold price added $14.50 to $1601.50 reflecting the continuing debt concerns in the US and Europe despite the euro zone bailout last week. The Aussie dollar was up to 108.49c from 108.35c.

In the news today…

  • PanAust (PNA) down 3c to 424c after announcing disappointing production numbers this morning. Production costs increased by 12% for the quarter on the back of heavy rain and rising fuel costs.
  • Transurban (TCL) down 3.2% to 519c after CPPIB sold their entire stake in the company at 523c. In other words, TCL is no longer considered a takeover target.
  • Australian Agricultural Company (AAC) announced a 1st half loss of $12.57m but maintained their FY earning guidance. Herd numbers increased by 59,086 head compared to for the 1st half of last year.  AAC unchanged at 141c.
  • Australian World Exploration (AWE) down 8.5% to 134.5c after news of a cut in oil reserves estimates for their Tui field offshore in NZ.
  • Platinum Australia (PLA) down 13% this morning on the news that their South African mine has been shut down by the government. The stock was over $3 in 2008. Now 31.5c … down from 85c in January.
  • Downer EDI (DOW) has been awarded a public transport maintenance services contract in QA worth around $285m over 7 years. DOW down 3c to 383c.
  • GrainCorp (GNC) down 2.6% to 815c after they confirm earnings guidance and announce the acquisition of GermanMalt for $77m.
  • Hastie Group (HST) has announced their recapitalization is complete with new syndicated debt facilities providing funding until FY14 an FY15. HST up 10% to 17c.
  • CPI Number — On Wednesday — Assuming this is OK the RBA will be on hold on interest rates possibly into next year … but even they in their last minutes held out the possibility of another rate rise if the CPI number was bad.
  • Macquarie Group (MQG) AGM on Thursday 00 with recent earnings downgrades there are fears of a profit warning.
  • Premier Investments (PMV) down 2.6% on a Trading Update.

MUTED RESPONSE 00 Rather surprising lack of reaction from the US markets in the wake of the European debt restructuring 00 of course the package was little more than a credit card extension at lower rates 00 it was designed to rebuild confidence in the euro zone but for now it doesn’t seem to have worked with Wall St down and the UK, Germany and France up just 0.50-0.68% on Friday and the Gold price up $14. If this last ditch package hasn’t instilled confidence you have to wonder what will.

Macquarie (MQG) 00 Their AGM is on Thursday 00 We bought it for a trade on Friday on the hope that the market had bottomed in the short term (now looking a bit premature) and on the hope that the MQG share price had already reacted to a possible profit warning and that anything less than a full profit warning would be met with a share price rally. Not helping things this morning is broker Citi who have once again cut their earnings forecasts for Macquarie due to continued weakness in Macquarie’s M&A deal pipeline. Citi lowers their fiscal 2012 forecast by 4.3% and their 2013 forecast by 4.9%. They have a 3065c target price.

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