Markets Live: Turnaround for stocks 2:02pm: The Australian dollar remains stuck under 90 US cent, last trading at 89.88 US cents, as heightened tensions in Syria and uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's stimulus policy weigh on market sentiment. The move lower this morning was triggered after the Indonesian rupiah and the Malaysian ringgit came under early pressure. That followed steep falls in Turkey, Brazil and Mexico's currencies yesterday. "It's the emerging markets story that has pushed the Aussie lower," says Michael Turner, a strategist at RBC Capital Markets. "There was broad US dollar buying and nothing specific to the Aussie," he says, seeing a test of 88.48 on the cards. Emerging markets were hit hard last week on unrelenting expectations the US Federal Reserve will start tapering its massive stimulus next month. The Aussie is often used as a liquid proxy to hedge against weakness in emerging markets. 1:38pm: Despite the optimistic noise from investment bankers about the IPO market, the planned float of Centuria Property Trust holding the Northpoint Tower building in Sydney's North Sydney has been pulled by its backer, Centuria. The $215 million float was struggling to win investor support late yesterday, which prompted the backers to withdraw the offering a few minutes ago. The failure of the float threatens to undermine the push by Centuria to spin off a range of listed property vehicles to complement its unlisted trusts. 1:17pm: Toll Holdings faces strike action by more than half its workforce after staff voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action due to a lack of progress over a new enterprise agreement. Talks between the Transport Workers Union and Toll became bogged down in July over issues including job security, outsourcing, and wages. It led to the union applying to the industrial umpire to carry out a ballot of members who worked at Australia's largest listed transport company. The results of that ballot, released on Tuesday, show about 85 per cent of the votes received were cast in favour of staff taking protected industrial action. The possibility of workers exercising their right to take industrial action threatens to disrupt the supply chains of retailers across the country. Toll transport goods for retailers including Coles and Woolworths. 1:02pm: Drilling contractor Boart Longyear is a long way from its highs of better than $20 a share five years ago, but at 45.5 cents, down a heavy 7.1 per cent so far today, brokers are warning that it may have much further to fall. June half loss of $US329 million, largely on write-downs, has set the scene for a thumping full year loss, even with ongoing cost cutting. The push back from miners over contract prices is only now being felt, which will be another leg down to earnings over the next year or so. Citi didn't mince words, maintaining its "Sell" call as it cut to 40 cents from 55 cents its targeted price for the shares. "With demand still deteriorating, balance sheet risk remaining elevated, and limited near-term catalysts, we retain our Sell recommendation," it told clients earlier today. 12:47pm: Here's the Myer executive shake-up story we promised you earlier. Department store giant Myer is shaking up its management team, ahead of next year's hunt to find an eventual replacement for chief executive Bernie Brookes. The changes, announced in an internal email viewed by BusinessDay, have been sparked by an ""internal review of processes"" at Myer, as the retail giant seeks to find further cost savings without having to axe staff. As part of the changes, Myer's general manager of marketing and brand development, Megan Foster, will become managing director of the department store's part-owned fashion label sass & bide. Foster's vacant marketing role will be merged with control of digital sales, the successful 'Myer one' loyalty program, major events and the ""omni-channel"" sales strategy - selling merchandise across bricks-and-mortar stores, online websites and mobile devices - as part of a new executive role. Myer is already interviewing candidates for the new position. Whoever is appointed to the new role will be considered a prime contender to succeed Bernie Brookes as Myer chief executive when he and the board agree to a date for his eventual departure. Megan Foster will take the helm at sass & bide. 12:43pm: For the year to June 30, Seven Group Holdings reported a 193 per cent rise in full-year profit to $486.4 million. Revenue grew by 6 per cent to $4.75 billion, and underlying net profit was $399 million - within the forecast range provided at its half-year results. The company declared a 20 cent fully-franked dividend. The result was boosted by a $50 million gain on the sale of its investment in Consolidated Media Holdings last year for $491 million. But the company recorded $54.3 million in restructuring and redundancy costs in the second half. 12:24pm: Shares in medical devices outfits Resmed and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare are well supported, with bullish forecasts by F&PH maintaining interest. Kiwi sleep apnoea group Fisher & Paykel Healthcare reckons the year ahead will be a big one, flagging a net profit of $NZ90-95 million up from $NZ77.1 million earned in the year to March. Ditto for revenue, which it reckons will run at $NZ625-645 million. This follows a buoyant second half performance in its most recent year, when net profit surged 54 per cent, thanks to improved margins and efficiencies. It is a key competitor of Resmed in the US market, which has also reported strong earnings growth recently, pushing the share price to record levels. In early afternoon trading, Resmed was ahead 1.5 per cent to $5.515 in local trading, holding around all-time highs, with Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 0.8 per cent to $3.60 before being put in a trading halt, holding above $3 and back at multi-year highs. 12:02pm: Weak coal prices and high operating costs pushed NSW coal producer Whitehaven Coal into the red in the year to June, with little prospect of a quick turnaround. In the year it posted a net loss of $60.7 million, a reversal from the $57.8 million profit of a year earlier. Revenue rose slightly to $622.1 million from $618.1 million a year earlier. The loss saw the group pass paying a dividend in the latest year, following a total payout of 53c in the previous year. Whitehaven said it expects little improvement in coal prices ""in the short term"" although the weaker Australian dollar will give revenues a lift. ""In addition recent cost cutting across all of the mines will leave Whitehaven well placed to cope with the current market environment,"" it said. Output and sales are expected to total 11 million tonnes, up from 6 million tonnes in the year to June. 11:34am: International tourist numbers have surged by 5.2 per cent to nearly half a billion people worldwide in the first half of 2013, beating earlier expectations. The UN's World Tourism Organisation says some 494 million international tourists spent at least one night abroad in the first six months of the year. As a result of the ""robust"" performance, the WTO said it was boosting its 2013 forecast. After originally tipping growth of three to four per cent for the whole year, it now expects the increase to be at the higher end of that range ""or to slightly exceed it"." Europe enjoyed growth of 5.1 per cent in international tourist numbers in the six months, the Madrid-based agency said in a report of preliminary results for the period. The Asia-Pacific region reported growth of 6.2 per cent including an 11.6 per cent surge in tourists going to Southeast Asia. But results were weaker than anticipated in the Americas, which posted growth of just 2.2 per cent. International tourist numbers grew 3.1 per cent in North America, but South America reported growth of just 0.3 per cent and the Caribbean had growth of a meagre 0.1 per cent. In Africa, international tourist arrivals rose by 3.8 per cent. In the Middle East, tourist numbers soared by 12.9 per cent, but these figures should be viewed ""with caution"" because of uneven results and limited data, it said. 11:20am: Wage growth under recent enterprise bargaining agreements has been restrained, posing little threat to the inflation outlook, new federal government figures suggest. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations data released on Tuesday shows the average annualised wage increase through collective agreements during the June quarter was 3.4 per cent, down from 3.8 per cent in the previous three months. The annualised rate for the private sector fell 0.2 percentage points to 3.5 per cent in the September quarter, while public sector agreements dropped by 0.7 percentage points to 3.2 per cent. The overall result brought it more into line with the Reserve Bank of Australia's preferred wage growth measure for the same quarter. The June quarter wage price index, released earlier in August by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, showed an annual rate of 2.9 per cent - well below the 4.5 per cent level normally considered a threat to the inflation outlook. 11:08am: Goldman Sachs lost tens of millions of dollars after a computer glitch led to a flood of erroneous options trades last week, a source close to the matter said overnight. Last Tuesday, an upgrade of Goldman's internal system affected options on stocks and some exchange-traded funds with symbols beginning with the letters H through L, leading to trades vastly out of line with market prices. Roughly 80 per cent of the erroneous option-market contracts traded on NYSE Euronext's two option platforms NYSE Arca Options and NYSE Amex options were cancelled, according to a second source close to the situation. The two platforms have collectively handled about 23 per cent of equity and index options trading in August, according to data from OCC, formerly known as the Options Clearing Corp, which clears all U.S.-listed options. NYSE Euronext said it completed a review and appeals process last week but declined to give further details. 10:42am: The Australian dollar has slipped against all of its 16 major counterparts. The Aussie weakened against its US and Japanese peers as investors continued to sell Asian emerging-market holdings and before a report that may show home-price gains in the world's biggest economy remained near a seven-year high, boosting the case for a reduction in US Federal Reserve stimulus. "Increased volatility historically has placed some downward pressure on the Aussie," said Commonwealth Bank currency economist Peter Dragicevich. In terms of what's contributed to it, you've got concerns in the emerging-market space. And the other factor is that historically, volatility does pick up in and around large turning points in US monetary policy, and we are on the cusp of one at the moment. The Aussie lost 0.4 per cent to 89.92 US cents in early trade. It fell 0.6 per cent to 88.38 yen. Below is a graphic showing major currency performance over the 24 hours. Based currency is USD. 10:33am: Billabong says it will seal a refinancing deal within weeks as its annual net loss more than tripled and sales of its surf and streetware continued to decline in key markets including the US. The company is considering two refinancing offers, one led by US private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners and another from US hedge funds Oaktree Capital Management and Centerbridge Partners. "We are within weeks of finalising our long-term funding arrangements," chairman Ian Pollard said, without mentioning which party's offer was the preferred option. Billabong posted a net loss after tax of $859.5 million for the year ended June 30, including significant items such as impairment charges on brands and goodwill. That compared with a net loss of $275.6 million a year ago. Adjusted net profit, excluding one-off items, fell to $7.7 million, from $33.5 million a year ago. That was below average analysts' forecasts of $10.8 million. Sales continued to slide in the Americas, Billabong's biggest market, following the closure of a number of underperforming stores, the company said. Store closures and weak consumer sentiment hit sales in Australia, while heavy discounting impacted revenue in Europe. Struggling to pay off debts left over from an ill-timed expansion as its brands fell out of favour, Billabong has issued a series of profit warnings since rejecting a $850 million bid from private equity firm TPG Capital Management in February 2012. It shares hit a record low of 12 cents in June after trading above $14 in 2007. 9:50am: Italian borrowing costs relative to Germany are shrinking as bund yields climb, in turn masking investor concern about the potential for political turmoil, credit-default swaps suggest. The cost of insuring Italian government securities against default has risen 8.5 per cent since reaching a low for the year in May. The yield premium investors demand to own its 10-year bonds rather than German bunds dropped to a two-year low last week. Evidence of an economic rebound in the euro region has pushed German yields higher while underpinning demand for Italian debt, even as former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's party threatens to withdraw from the coalition government. The increase in German rates was exacerbated by speculation that the US Federal Reserve will soon scale back its bond purchases. ""Italian yields are out of whack with its political situation,"" says Robin Marshall, director of fixed income at Smith & Williamson Investment Management in London. ""Some investors may have expressed their bearish view through the CDS instead of selling the underlying bonds. It's more the case of German yields being pushed higher by concern about the Fed's tapering than a reflection of progress in structural reforms in Italy."" 9:36am: Women's clothing retailer Noni B has reported an underlying profit of $1.5 million, excluding an impairment of goodwill, compared with $2.7 million in the previous year. Including impairement, Noni B ran a loss of $3.5 million. This is a disappointing result. Revenue increased despite one less week's trading, however; earnings were affected by lower margins and higher expenses in a year when spending on women's fashion was impacted by low consumer confidence," said joint managing director David Kindl. Mr Kindl said the outlook for women's fashion remained challenging and sales so far this financial year have been hit by pre-election jitters. Noni B will not pay a final dividend. 9:19am: Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia's gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria. Leaked transcripts of a behind closed doors meeting between Russia's Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin 9:13am: Stronger sales and improved margins have helped Flight Centre lift its net profit 23 per cent. The travel agency group's 2012-13 profit was $246 million, up from $200 million the previous year. Revenue was up nine per cent to $1.99 billion. Managing director Graham Turner said the company recorded profits in all 10 countries it operates in for the third consecutive year. Sales of both leisure and corporate travel increased 20 per cent. The company expects to grow its sales network by between eight and 10 per cent this year. ""FLT (Flight Centre) is a growth-focused company and has set its sights on delivering improved top and bottom-line results and enhanced shareholder returns during 2013-14,"" Mr Turner said. The company declared a fully-franked final dividend of 91 cents. That's up 28 per cent on the 2012 final dividend of 71 cents and takes the full year distribution to $1.37 a share. 9:03am: Troubled surfwear group Billabong has reported a net loss of $859.5 million for the year to June, down 211.8 per cent from a year earlier. The company said the net loss included significant items such as write downs of real estate and retail and impairment charges. It said it was still considering a proposal by private equity funds Oaktree/Centerbridge and had secured liquidity for refinancing. The company did not post a final dividend. 8:56am: The Australian market looks set to open lower after Wall Street fell following a disappointing durable goods report which raised fresh concerns about the strength of the US economy. The fall was sharply exacerbated when Secretary of State John Kerry warned the US would demand ""accountability"" after an ""obscene"" chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians. SPI futures down 29 points AUD fetching 90.28 US cents, 88.84 yen, 67.51 yen, 57.94 pence On Wall St, Dow Jones -0.4%, S&P500 -0.4% In Europe, Eurostoxx -0.2%, FTSE100 closed, CAC -0.1%, DAX +0.2% Gold at $US1403.40 an ounce Oil at $US106.23 per barrel Iron ore at $US138.70 per tonne 8:54am: Good morning.