The market is down 31. Dow Jones was down 130. SFE Futures were down 35 this morning.

The Dow closed on its lows and registered the biggest intraday fall for 2013 pulling back below 14,000 after breaking through on Friday. Volumes on Wall St were slightly below average. Markets were spooked by political and financial concerns in Italy and Spain. US financials the worst — Morgan Stanley (-2.68%), Deutsche Bank (-4.88%), Bank of America (-1.96%). Chevron (-1.12%) and Wal-Mart (-1.22%) after broker downgrades. Apple down 2.5%. Facebook down another 5.45%.

Italy continues to investigate the health of several financials including the world’s oldest bank, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. On Monday five of eight banks listed on the Italian exchange were put in trading halts to halt their sell off. Concerns that Silvio Berlusconi’s Alliance Party is rising in the polls with 28% of the vote raising the odds of him regaining power next year.

In Spain, markets were rattled as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other members of the People’s Party find themselves in the middle of an alleged kickback scandal uncovered by Spain’s largest newspaper, El Pais prompting calls for their resignations.

European markets down — UK FTSE down 1.58%, German DAX down 2.49%, France down 3.01%, Spain down 3.77%, and Italy down 4.50%.

Metals mixed — Copper up 0.15%, Nickel up 0.53%, Zinc up 0.26%, Lead down 0.10%. Spot iron ore up $1.00 to $154.20.

  • RBA meeting and rates decision at 2.30pm today. There is a 27% chance of a rate cut down from 37% last week.
  • Cochlear (COH) – 1H profit of $77.665 million a 481% increase on the pcp but below market expectations. Revenue in the period was $391.6 million up from $387 million. COH is down 5.65% to 7591c.
  • Macquarie Group (MQG) — Operational Briefing — Expects FY13 profit to rise 10% to $803 million vs a Bloomberg consensus of $835 million. Look to be deliberately conservative and too early for MQG to mention an improving market background for IPOs and market activity. MQG is down 3.58% to 3734c.
  • Navitas (NVT) — 1H13 Earnings rose 5% to $59.9 million. NPAT fell 1% to $35.6 million and was in line with a forecast of $35.5 million. NVT is down 0.81% to 490c.
  • Transurban Group (TCL) — 1H profit of $80.944 million down 16% but the company has increased their payout to shareholders. Overall the result was broadly in line with expectations. TCL is up 1.48% to 619c.
  • Reckon Group (RKN) — FY Result – NPAT +2% to $18.3 million slightly below a Bloomberg consensus forecasts of $18.8 million. RKN is down 1.99% to 246c.
  • Qantas Airways (QAN) — British Airways will end a long standing code share agreement with Qantas next month in the wake of Qantas’ alliance with Emirates. QAN is down 0.16% to 153.75c.