Qantas lived up to its reputation as
one of the most profitable airlines in the world with a 17.8% increase in earnings, says Stephen Bartholomeusz in The Age. While being perhaps the world’s most profitable airline may not
be much of a boast in such an underperforming industry, in any
terms the Qantas result was a triumph of management over industry
circumstances.

But let’s not split hairs about what Qantas will have to do to get
its $1.5 billion in cost savings over the line, says Elizabeth Knight in The SMH. Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon can dress it up any way he
wants but the reality is that things could get ugly. There is still room for a major cost-cutting drive by Dixon and
it’s the one that will see the Flying Kangaroo move many jobs
offshore.

Competition regulator Graeme Samuel has bluntly warned Telstra chief
executive Sol Trujillo to “settle down” and abide by the federal
government’s tough new curbs on the company, reports the Fin Review – predicting that despite Telstra’s objections, the government will ultimately have its way.

Meanwhile, AMP wooed investors yesterday with the promise of up to $1
billion in capital returns next year and plans to double the size of
the company by 2010 as it unveiled a 22% rise in interim profit,
reports
Geoffrey Newman
in The Australian. AMP shares rocketed as much as 4%, beating analysts’
expectations with an underlying half-year profit of $393 million.

On Wall Street, US stocks were mixed overnight, with Google falling markedly (down 1.8%) after the announcement of a planned
stock sale that could net more than $US4 billion. The Dow closed up 4.22 points at 10,554 – MarketWatch has a full report here.