Our market is up 41. The SFE Futures were up 14 this morning.

Wall St. finished down 20. The Dow up 27 at best and down 96 at worst. European markets were up despite no official financial rescue of Greece … yet. Metals had a good session in London, oil put on 2.02% to $76.76 and Gold fell 90c to $1076. The Aussie dollar fell to 87.56c from 87.88c.

Today’s results…

  • Telstra (TLS) — interim results lower than expected — net profit down 3.3% to $1.85bn, below the $1.89bn analysts expected. Estimates ranged from $1.8bn to $2.08bn. Full year guidance shaded down. PSTN revenue down 6% and below expectations. Competition in mobile. Losing market share in mobile and broadband. Fixed broadband maturing. Sensis under pressure. No update on the NBN. They did generate $6bn of cash of course. Ex dividend 14c on 22nd Feb. Some had hoped for 15c. TLS down 3.83% or 13c to 326c.
  • James Hardie (JHX) — 3Q results better than expected — Excluding asbestos liabilities, profit came in at $US29.8m, above the $US24.8m expected. 3Q operating profit fell from $US111m to $US14.9m on net sales of $US849.7m, but upgrades its FY sales. JHX up 15c to 782c
  • STW Communications Group (STW) announces a 27.9% rise in FY net profit and are optimistic about 2010 after a challenging 1H. STW up 1% to 4271c.
  • Rio Tinto is releasing their full year result later this afternoon. RIO up 2.47% to 6962c. The federal government expects Chinese authorities to confirm that RIO’s executive Stern Hu has been indicted.

In other news…

  • The unemployment rate has unexpectedly dropped to 5.3% in January; economists expected it to rise to 5.6%. A larger than expected 52,700 jobs were created. This is likely to put added pressure on the RBA to lift rates.
  • The ACCC says they are more concerned about the impact of the National Australia Bank (NAB) talking over AXA Asia Pacific (AXA) than the AMP Ltd (AMP). They hope to make a final decision by March 17. AMP down 11c to 626c, AXA down 5c to 630c and NAB up 19c to 2473c.
  • Foster’s Group (FGL) extends their 22 year partnership with Grupo Modelo and also extends deal to market Corono in Australia. FGL down 4c to 551c.
  • Charter Hall (CHC) in a trading halt – in late talks about a potential acquisition – last traded at 75.5c.
  • Arrow Energy (AOE) has take entire ownership of Fisherman’s Landing LNG project in QLD in what is a complex transaction involving cash, milestone payments, share options and royalties to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). AOE up 5c to 345c.

The Dow Futures are up 40 at midday