Morning Market Report

The market is up 16 points. The Dow Jones finished up 22 –– it was up 59 at best. It traded in a particularly narrow range of 60 points — lower volatility is seen as a good thing and something that will encourage people into the market. The intra-day all-time high of 15542 was hit in May. Now 15568. The S&P 500 closed down 3.

The Chinese Premier Li Keqiang declares 7% as the bottom line growth target. The Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli said China would fine-tune policies to deal with any prolonged slowdown. The Chinese market was up 1.95% yesterday.

The Japanese government raised its growth forecast for the third month on the trot, suggesting the recovery is self-sustaining. Japan up 0.82% yesterday.

Resources rallied, with BHP and RIO up 1.33% and 3.16% in the US with BHP closing at the equivalent of 40c up on last night’s close in Australia. The A$ hit 92.97c overnight on the back of the Chinese vibe and a fall in the US dollar generally. Now 92.90c.

The Bank of Spain declared GDP at -0.1% in the current quarter. Reasonably encouraging — coming out of a deep recession. Spanish market up 1.32% overnight.

The next bailout payment to Greece has been delayed until July 29 to coincide with a Troika report on the country.

UK pound up for a sixth day — the “royal rally” perhaps.

US results — 64% of stocks have beaten earnings forecasts so far — over the last year the average has been 67% of companies beating forecasts. Some 51% have had revenue below expectations so far this quarter.

Metals mostly up. Oil price up 44c to $107.38. Gold price up another $11.10 to $1347 after a $43.10 rise yesterday. Spot iron ore was up 40c to $131.90.

US results

  • Apple up 3.56% after hours.
  • AT&T up 0.65%
  • Juniper Networks up 2.84%
  • AK Steel up 3.79%
  • Altria down 2.41%
  • DuPont down 0.16%
  • Freeport-McMoRan up 2.88%
  • Peabody Energy up 5.02%
  • UPS down 0.11%
  • United Technologies up 2.95%
  • Texas Instruments up 4.04%
  • Netflix down 4.47%

ANNOUNCEMENTS & STORIES

  • CPI — Was +0.4% in the second quarter. Consensus was for +0.5%. The trimmed mean CPI (core) was +0.5%. Consensus was for +0.6%. Headline was +2.4% annually versus consensus of +2.5%. Both are slightly below expectations.
  • China’s HSBC’s flash manufacturing PMI has come in at 47.7 in July, below expectations of 48.2.
  • Atlas Iron (AGO) — Up 5.09% after the company announced increased shipping volumes during the June quarter, and that it expects to lift production further this financial year. AGO shipped 2.2 million tonnes of iron ore during the June quarter up 16%. It intends to produce between 9.8 million to 10.3 million tonnes this financial year, compared to with 7.4 million tonnes last year. Capital operating costs were around $49-$50 a tonne, which was within its guidance range.
  • Australand (ALZ) — Half-year profit has fallen by 1.4% as market conditions remain challenging. A weaker contribution from the residential division caused the fall. The company is confident of a turnaround in the second half as projects are completed. Net profit fell to $88.4 million from $89.7 million. The company has also closed its books to potential buyers after it failed to attract a high enough bid to satisfy directors and major shareholders CapitaLand.
  • CBA — Has submitted an indicative, non-binding proposal to the CMIL board in relation to separate potential internalisation of each Commonwealth Property Office Fund (CPA) and CFS Retail Property Trust Group (CFX).
  • Sirius Resources (SIR) — Up 2.56% after releasing its quarterly activities report.
  • Syriah Resources (SYR) — Up 1.69% after releasing an update on its Balama Graphite project.