The market is down 58. The SFE Futures were down 35 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed down 100 on Friday. Dow up 19 at best and down 153 at worst. The Dow was down 0.3% for the week, while the S&P 500 fell 0.8% on Friday and was down 0.2% for the week. The Aussie dollar fell to 105.70c from 106.77c at the close on Friday thanks to the renewed concerns over Greek debt and weak Australian employment numbers last week. Metals were mostly down, the Gold price fell $13.20 to $1493.60 and oil put on 68c to $99.65.

Today’s main stories…

  • JB Hi-Fi (JBH) has completed their off market buyback of 10.8m shares for $173m. The purchase represents 9.9% of shares on issue and was at a 14% discount to the market price. There was an 81% scaleback. Final price 1600c. 1542c of that is a fully franked dividend. Proceeds are expected to be dispatched to successful participants on May 20. JBH down 4% to 1750c.
  • Whitehaven Coal (WHC) has ended negotiations with potential buyers saying the “board has now determined that no proposal is sufficiently attractive” to recommend to shareholders. WHC say they will continue to focus on developing their coal assets and seeking new growth opportunities. WHC down 11.3% to 570c.
  • DuluxGroup (DLX) has reported first half net profit of $48.74m, more than double the $23.65m reported a year earlier. They now expect annual profit of $71.5m and say the result reinforced the company’s strategic direction. DLX will pay an interim dividend of 7.5c per share. DLX up 1c to 274c.
  • Wah Nam International has extended the dead-line for its offer for Brockman Resources (BRM) until June 15 and has received acceptances for 51.99% of the total Brockman shares on issue. The Directors of Brockman recommend that shareholders do not accept the offer as it currently stands. BRM down 4.2% to 429c.
  • Ausenco (AAX) has been awarded a US$7m contract to deliver the engineering for a 401 kilometre iron ore pipeline as part of Samarco’s expansion project in Brazil. AAX down 2c to 313c.
  • Lynas Corporation (LYC) — The ABC featured a section in their weekend Asian News TV program about Malaysian protests against LYC’s rare earth’s refinery in Malaysia. The International Atomic Energy Agency has appointed a team to help the Malaysian Government review the safety of the refinery. LYC has announced this morning that the review has started with a decision to be announced by the end of June. LYC unchanged at 214c.
  • Westpac Bank (WBC) has gone 76c ex-dividend today. WBC down 106c to 2266c.

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