After the first hour of trading the S&P/ASX200 is down 37 points to 5901.7.

The consumer discretionary index is lagging, down 1.77 per cent. It holds all the travel companies including Flight Centre, which is down 10.1 per cent to $46.02. Webjet is down 3.2 per cent to $13.65 and Corporate Travel Management is down 3 per cent to $27.51.

Information technology is also lagging, down 1.4 per cent on declines in WiseTech, Link Administration, and Appen Ltd.

The only sector in green this morning is real estate, but there are no outstanding performers.

An Australia-American company called Aquabotix announced this morning it has a lices from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to "develop, manufacture, store and sell unmanned vehicles with explosive capabilities".

Aquabotix sells underwater drones and it can now make and sell exploding underwater drones. To date its products have focused on finding targets in the water. "We anticipate that expanding our offerings to cover the neutralisation and disablement of targets will open up a much wider range of uses, contracts, and customers".

It is still up for debate whether the Opera House is a billboard, but no denying that the car park at Sydney Airport has become a billboard. This morning it announced the largest billboard in the country (nearly 2000 square meters) will wrap around its multi-story car park. The massive ad is created by Wideopen Platform, a subsidiary of Primedia.

Shares in Sydney Airport are trading a little softer than the rest of the market today, down 1 per cent to $6.58.

After an initial bump, Flight Centre shares are in a nosedive this morning (pun intended), shedding $5.42 so far to $45.83, a drop of 12 per cent.

Analysts are scrambling to check the numbers, but it appears managing director Graham Turner (who owns 15 per cent of stock), reported growth figures that were below what the market was expecting. This morning he announced growth of up to 9 per cent for 2018-19 compared to the previous year.

Flight Centre shares are all over the place today after a profit upgrade. Up 2.5 per cent to $51.15 in early trading, shares are now dropping suddenly. Down 2.5 per cent to $49.70 in the past minute. Travel spending is "tracking slightly above our longer term target of 7 per cent annual growth" at the end of the first quarter managing director, Graham Turner, told the annual general meeting today. Underlying pre-tax profit is expected to be between $140 million and $150 million for six months to December 31, and between $390 million and $420 million for the full year. If Flight Centre hits the top of this forecast it would be growth of 9 per cent.

Mr Turner said its American operations were driving the profit growth and Flight Centre is optimistic about growth in the Americas "given out consistently strong corporate results and out improved leisure results over the past year".

Profit from Australia is down compared to last year, due to enterprise bargaining and the impact of an ABC investigation into the company, which alleged bullying by former staff.

And the S&P/ASX200 has gone down on opening, dropping 20 points in the first few minutes of trading to 5919.4.

The materials and information technology sectors are early laggers.

CYBG Plc is up 1.4 per cent to $5.00 and Flight Centre is up 1.4 per cent to $51.93.

Brambles has already shed $1 per cent to $10.48 and Alumina is down 2.3 per cent to $2.59.

A couple of announcements from smaller companies:

• ResApp has gone into a trading halt pending an announcement and will resume trading on Wednesday. Shares last traded at 22 cents on Friday.
• Salt Lake Potash has appointed former Fortescue Metals executive Tony Swiericzuk as managing director and chief executive.
• Event Hospitality and Entertainment has sold its German cinema division, Cinestar, to Vue International for up to $358 million, depending on admissions in 2019. At least $210 million is guaranteed.
• Private wealth platform Hub24 announced record growth money inflows in its first quarter, up 19.3 per cent or inflows of $638 million. There is now $9.1 billion funds under administration on the Hub24 platform.

Cash Converters has settled one of two class actions, it announced this morning. The first, McKenzie v Cash Converters, will see $10.6 million paid to Queenslanders "who took out cash advances from Cash Converters subsidiaries during the period 28 April, 2010 to 30 June 2013". It also has to pay $5.8 million in legal and admin costs, plus and extra $50,000 in verification costs. The $16.4 million cost will be expensed to the current financial year. The company did not admit liability.

The second matter, Lynch v Cash Converters Personal Finance, is listed for a hearing today.

Argo Investments has its annual general meeting today and chair Russell Higgins has provided his outlook on global markets: "The Federal Reserve is optimistic in their assessment of economic conditions and is flagging further interest rate rises over 2019 and 2020. However, some clouds are gathering on the horizon, including the potential for trade wars to escalate...Australia's economy is strengthening further and is now expanding 'above trend'....Equities are trading at relatively high valuations with some sectors, such as technology, now trading on exceptionally high price-to-earnings ratios."

Mr Russell also noted Argo is making formal submissions to a House of Reps committee examining Labor's proposal to scrap refundable franking credits, and is a member of two Listed Investment Company associations lobbying against the change.

Managing director Jason Beddow says: "In Australia, the recent reporting season of corporate earnings was fairly good, with profits and dividends declared largely in line with our expectations. Earnings estimates have fallen, but Australian companies are still expected to continue growing at circa 7 per cent on average in FY2019, and profits are expected to grow in every sector except Telecommunications and Transport."

"While we are wary of what appears to be an overstretched consumer at a time of high household debt levels and increasing costs of living, including the surge in energy prices, we expect the domestic economy will continue to grow, with unemployment relatively low and interest rates at historical lows. Outcomes from the Royal Commission, combined with a softening housing market and tighter credit, overlaid with a run into the next Federal election, are potential areas of concern as we move into 2019."

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SPI futures down 12 points or 0.2% to 5911 at 8.45am AEDT Saturday