The market is down 45. SFE Futures were down 10 this morning.

US market up 4. Volumes were light again as markets count down to the Fed Chairman Bernanke’s 31 August presentation at the Jackson Hole conference. Better than expected data overnight has rather perversely reduced the pressure on Bernanke to mention or engage in further economic stimulus (gold down $11.00) and a number of commentators are telling us to expect no QE3 announcement. S&P500 and NASDAQ both up around 0.1%. US annual GDP came in at 1.7% which was better then the initial estimate of 1.5% thanks to rising consumer spending and exports. Pending home sales were better than expected coming in at +2.4% for July, the highest level of home sales in over two years.

European markets mixed — UK FTSE down 0.56%, German DAX up 0.11%, France down 0.51%, Spain 0.37%, Italy down 0.33% and Greece up 1.49%. News that German Chancellor Merkel and Italian PM Monti had clashed over the best way forward for Europe also hurt sentiment. Both leaders publicly disagreed over whether the euro area’s bailout fund should get a bank license (in order to boost bond-buying capacity). The Spanish 10 year bond yield was down 1.5bpts to 6.46%. The Italian 10 year bond yield was down 6.1bpts to 5.76%.

Metals mixed — Copper was down 0.45% (down the last 4 days), Nickel up 0.31%, Aluminium down 1.13%, and Zinc down 1.01%.Oil down $1.16 to $95.17. Hurricane Isaac made landfall but the damage in the Gulf of Mexico is not as bad as expected with offshore oil infrastructure mostly undamaged. The latest US Energy Department inventories report revealed a surprise rise in stockpiles. Aussie dollar is at 103.52c.

The iron ore price is down 5% overnight to $90.30. Combined with a profit warning from Boart Longyer and the resources sector is down 2.7%.

  • Boart Longyear (BLY) — Downgrades guidance by 18% — Net profit of US$98 up 32% which as expected. EBITDA guidance of US$360-US$390m down from US$460m. BLY is down 31% to 164c.
  • Lend Lease (LLC) — FY result better than expected — Operating profit went up 4.5% to $507.2m and beat an analyst forecast of $496m. LLC is up 2.56% to 840c.
  • Perpetual (PPT) — Net profit fell 57% to $26.7m down from $62m. PPT is down 0.44% to 2688c.
  • Macquarie Atlas Roads Group (MQA) — Interim Net loss of $75.1m which was better than last year’s loss of $106.4m. MQA is unchanged on 144c. 
  • Prime Media Group (PRT) — Net profit of $27.7m up 1.9% from $27.2m. Revenue was $273.5m up 6.4%. PRT is up 2.19% to 70c.
  • Australian residential building approvals fell 17.3% to 11,306 units down from 13,662 in June. The fall was more than an expected 4.0% fall.
  • Air New Zealand (AIZ) — Better than expected results – Net profit of $71m down 12% but well above a consensus forecast of $44.5m. AIZ is up 7% to 78c.
  • New private capital expenditure rose 3.4% in the June Q which was in line with the consensus forecast. Aussie Dollar has fallen slightly

For a five day FREE TRIAL of the MARCUS TODAY newsletter Click Here. You will receive our renowned and popular Daily email about the stockmarket with all the stuff you need to know ahead of the trading day including:

  • Overnight developments, news, comments, rumours, broker recommendations and ideas from Marcus and his Team.
  • Our Portfolio recommendations which is actively managed on behalf of subscribers … no “set & forget”. Everything you need to effortlessly
  • managed your own long term investment portfolio.
  • Daily Technical Trading ideas and data, including daily scans of the ASX 300 for stocks changing trend.
  • Stock Database  —  all the numbers with comments on the top 300 stocks and more.
  • Educational section  —  Marcus’s Educational and Entertaining articles.

Subscribe to MARCUS TODAY. We are sure you will enjoy and profit from what we offer … we have one of the highest re subscription rates in the financial newsletter industry.