The market is up 6. SFE Futures were down 1 this morning. The ASX 200 has traded in a small 14 point range today.

Dow Jones up 12. The Dow was up 29 at worst and down 35 at worst. US markets were generally quiet with no major corporate data released. Affecting the market today was another rise in the Apple share price (more than $700) offset by comments from a PBOC official that the Chinese are comfortable with slowing growth (the Standard Chartered economist cut their Chinese growth estimate from 8.7% to 7.8%) and concern over whether Spain will do the “right thing” and take a bailout allowing the ECB to support their bond market.

One of China’s central bank officials has cooled speculation that the economy may need further stimulus measures. Sheng Songcheng said that “the PBOC wasn’t worried about China’s slowing economy, which was going through structural change rather than a cyclical downturn”. He said that major trading partners should prepare for lower growth over the long term.

Spanish 10-year bond yield down 7.8bpts to 5.89%. Italian 10-year bond yield down 5.3bpts to 5.05%.

Metals mixed — Copper was up 0.33%, nickel down 2.20%, aluminium down 0.24% and zinc up 1.05%. The spot iron ore price up $4.30 to $US109.60pt. Oil down $2.87 to $95.44.  Gold up $1.50 to $1773.60. A$ is at 104.53c.

  • David Jones (DJS) — FY result below consensus — Net profit of $101.3 million down 39.9% and below a consensus estimate of $105 million. The company said “it is well positioned to leverage any upturn in the retail cycle despite posting a fall in annual profit in line with expectations”. Total revenue fell 4.8% to $1.877 billion. Fully franked final dividend of 7c less than half of last year’s 15c. No guidance was given. DJS is down 1.32% to 224c.
  • Macmahon Holdings (MAH) has come out of a trading halt today after updating its earnings guidance for the 2013 financial year. The company now anticipates its full-year profit will be in the range of $20 million-$40 million. They made a profit of $56.1 million last year and were expecting a profit of $67.3 million this year. The company CEO has resigned. MAH is down 36% to 34c.
  • Karoon Gas (KAR) has sold 35% of four oil and natural gas exploration blocks offshore Brazil to Colombia’s Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp for $US40 million cash and a carry through on some drilling costs. KAR is up 3.63% to 527.5c.
  • Leighton Holdings (LEI) has won a $230 million contract to build an iconic new Australian embassy in Jakarta Indonesia. The contract will be delivered as a joint venture between PT Leighton Contractors Indonesia and PT Total Bangun Persada Tbk. LEI is down 1.55% to 1648c.
  • ANZ has sold its stake in Visa Inc for a profit of $244 million. The profit will be used to bolster ANZ’s capital position in the face of increasingly stringent banking regulations.
  • We are waiting for an HSBC Flash Chinese PMI number

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