The market is up 13. The SFE Futures were down 6 this morning.

The Dow closed down 83 and was down 88 at worst a day after the index rallied 194 points. The S&P 500 closed down 0.41%, and the Nasdaq down 0.47%. European markets were down on renewed concerns about Spain and Spanish banks (Spanish market down 4%) and as Italy cut its economic growth forecasts.  US company results OK but share prices down on revenue projections. Metals were down on the LME. Gold was down $11.50 $1639.60. Oil down $1.47 to $103.21. The Australian dollar is down at 103.58¢, down from 103.99¢. Consumer Staples were the only S&P 500 sector to end the day higher, up just 0.03%. Technology and Financials stocks were worst.  Ten-year US bond yields dropped to 1.976%.

Main points:

  • Commonwealth Bank (CBA) — The CBA has released their group strategy and said they will improve technology and customer service to enable growth for the years ahead. The new strategy aims to improve productivity without sending jobs overseas through the implementation and use of new modern technology.
  • Telstra (TLS) expects to make up to see excess cash flow of $2-3bn over the next three years from the NBN rollout and intends to return capital to shareholders through growth in franked dividends with dividends unlikely to increase before 2014. The market is a bit disappointed that TLS did not announce an immediate share buyback as rumoured — the company say it would be an inefficient way to distribute capital.
  • Santos (STO) 1st Q production was up 13% to 12.4m barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) due to production from new assets. Sales revenue was up 50% to $754m driven by higher oil and gas prices and higher sales volumes. Revenue beat analyst expectations of $721m.
  • Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) shipped 12.6m wet metric tonnes (wmt) of iron ore in the 3rd Q which was below guidance after being impacted by cyclones. FMG expects to catch up on delayed shipments this Q and has maintained their FY production guidance of 55mt.
  • Woodside Petroleum (WPL) delivered 1st Q results which were mixed. Revenue of US$1.20bn up 20% and above expectations. Production was down 10%, lower than expected after the impact of cyclones. WPL has said they remain on track to deliver their FY production target of 73-81mmboe.
  • St Barbara (SBM) 3rd Q production results were ok to weak. Gold production was 3% lower than expectations and costs were slightly worse than expected. Maintained guidance of 320-350koz at $790-$830/oz.
  • Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) delivered an interim profit of $18.3m above expectations and up from a $35m loss. Much of the improved result was driven by sales from retail chain Priceline which was up 3.1%. API is on track to deliver the full range of Priceline products online by the middle of the year. Interim dividend of 1.5c.
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