The market is down 71. ASX 200 Futures were down 33 this morning. The Dow Jones finished up 41 on Friday.

The Dow was up 100 at best and down 70 at worst. Volumes were heavy — Expirations for index futures, options on index futures, stock futures and stock options added to strong volumes with more than 2 billion shares traded on the NYSE. Over the week the Dow Jones was down 1.8%, the Nasdaq was down 1.9% and the S&P 500 was down 2.1%.

The Wall Street Journal published a piece suggesting that the markets might be misreading the Fed’s messages and that they overlooked the dovish signals in Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s press conference.

US 10-year bond yield was up 11bpts to 2.53% – its highest level since August 2011.

Oracle down 9.3% on the back of a disappointing earnings report.

European markets down — UK FTSE down 0.70%, Germany down 1.76%, France down 1.11%, Spain down 0.693%, Italy down 1.89%.

Metals mixed — Copper up 0.69%, Nickel down 2.77%, Zinc up 0.81%, Aluminium down 0.25%.

Spot iron ore down $5.40 to $115.20. Gold was up $5.80 to $1292.00. Oil was down $1.45 to $93.69. BHP up 1.10% and RIO down 0.34% in ADR form in the US with BHP closing at the equivalent of  3196c down 49c on Friday’s close here.

ANNOUCEMENTS & STORIES

  • AMP — Profit downgrade – The company expects first-half profit to be lower after their life insurance unit recorded higher than expected claims. They expect profit of $415 million to $435 million. Losses were $32 million for the five months to May. AMP reported an underlying profit of $491 million in the first half of 2012 and $464 million in the second half of 2012. AMP said: “The industry is experiencing increased pressure on insurance claims and policy lapses.” AMP is down 9.44% to 451c.
  • Metcash (MTS 344c) — Results better than expected — Underlying financial year profit of $281 million, up 6.9% and above consensus forecast of $279 million. Net profit was $206 million. Final dividend of 16.5c was also above an expected 15c. Earnings per share declined 4.4% in line with the company’s guidance of a fall of 2%-6%. MTS is up 6.69% to 367c.
  • Carsales.com (CRZ) — Has entered into a binding contract with Banco Santander relating to the company’s 30% interest in WebMotors SA. The investment will be funded by existing cash reserves and a new bank facility. The transaction is expected to close over the coming days and to be EPS accretive in FY14. CRZ is down 1.53% to 902c.
  • Leighton Holdings (LEI) — Has been awarded a $1.3 billion mining services contract by Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) for their Kings iron ore project in WA. This takes its total work from FMG to $2.8bn. LEI is down 1.72% to 1486c.