The market is down 40. The SFE Futures were up 4 this morning.

Wall Street closed down 54 overnight. The Dow closed down 54 points, but was down as much as 147 before picking up on the news the US Federal Open Market Committee decided to keep the target federal funds rate at 0.00% to 0.25%, as expected and provide some stimulus to bond markets. A symbolic reassurance that they are ready to act if the economy worsens. Metals were mostly down on the LME, the oil price fell $1.48 to $80 and the Gold price dropped $2.60 to $1200.

The Chinese market fell 2.9% on weak economic numbers yesterday. This morning the Industrial Production numbers are mostly in line with expectations. CPI was slightly higher, PPI lower than expected.

Today’s earnings results…

  • Computershare (CPU) down over 11% on the back of their profit result. Earnings were up but the company issued a warning on 2011 earnings (a “tough year ahead”) which is driving profit downgrades of around 10%. The price fell from $10 to 871c first thing. CPU now down 11.8% to 882c.
  • Commonwealth Bank (CBA) — FY net profit slight better-than-expected — FY cash profit of $6.10bn, slightly ahead of analyst’s expectations of $6.06bn. Declared a final dividend of 170c, higher than the 162c expected. No disasters in the result but the outlook was less optimistic with the CFO saying business credit growth hasn’t picked up yet.  CBA down 2.1% to 5164c.
  • Stockland (SGP) — Full year results — net profit was $478.4m, an improvement on the $1.8bn net loss the previous year as the residential housing market continued to show strong demand. SGP down 3c to 379c.

In other news today…

  • Seek (SEK) have acquired a 40% interest in Online Career Centre Mexico SA de CV, the leading employment website in Mexico. SEK will pay $US40m for the stake and will take 2 of 5 board seats. They expect the investment to be marginally EPS positive in FY11. SEK down 11c to 752c.
  • Fortescue Metals (FMG) has announced a 1.23 billion tonne resource estimate for their North Star tenement area. FMG down 7c to 452c.
  • Foster’s Group (FGL) signs a five-year distribution deal in the US with Southern Wine & Spirits of America. FGL down 1c to 568c.
  • Extract Resources (EXT) has upgraded their Rossing South deposit by ten fold to make the site one of the world’s top six uranium deposits. EXT up 11c to 683c.
  • Orica (ORI) completed a $US600m private note placement in the US private placement debt market. ORI down 9c to 2506c.
  • Consumer Sentiment increased 5.4% in August from July. In annual terms, the index rose to a seasonally adjusted 5.1%.

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