00:02Australia's second biggest company increased its half-yearly profit by a whopping 28% to
00:07$5.6 billion, which was almost the same as the $5.4 billion the biggest company, Commonwealth
00:12Bank, announced last week.
00:13And as was CBA, investors loved it, bidding BHP's price up sharply to a new record high.
00:20For the first time since BHP was just a silver-lead zinc mine in Broken Hill, less than half its
00:24profit came from iron ore, down from 70% six years ago.
00:29Investors remained untroubled by coals being pulled over by the corporate cops yesterday.
00:34Some banks went up, some down, and the market as a whole finished higher, mainly thanks
00:38to BHP.
00:39On the whole, the interim profit reporting season is going pretty well.
00:42Analysts tend to measure it against what they expected, so it's all about beats and misses.
00:46And so far, nearly 60% of companies beat expectations, while 20% missed them, which is a better ratio
00:53than they've seen for years.
00:54The American market was closed last night for President's Day, or George Washington's
00:59birthday, although he was born on February 22nd, not the 16th.
01:02They market the third Monday in February, so it's a long weekend, and the Chinese market
01:06is closed for the Lunar New Year.
01:08Japanese and German markets both fell.
01:11Gold, silver, oil and iron ore all fell on commodity markets, and the Aussie dollar also
01:16slipped a bit to 70.5 US cents.
01:19The Reserve Bank published the minutes of its February meeting today.
01:22They confirmed the reassessment of the economy that led to the rate hike a fortnight ago.
01:27The market doesn't think there will be another hike next month, but is pretty sure there will
01:32be one in June, and it's putting a 20% chance on a third hike this year.
01:38And that's finance.
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