Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals is up 41 cents, 7 per cent, to $6.39 today, retracing its way back to a two-year high of $6.57 reached last week. The stock went ex-dividend on 28 February, which included an interim dividend and a special dividend totalling 30 cents. FMG dropped from $6.27 on Wednesday to $5.98 on Friday, but is still showing strength.

Iron ore prices gained 3.1 per cent to $US87.92 a tonne over the weekend and are elevated ever since Vale's mine damn collapsed killing nearly 200 people in the town of Brumadinho. Meanwhile, BHP faces new court action over the 2015 collapse of the Samarco tailings damn, including accusations of negligent homicide and environmental crimes. Read the full story here

Surely the rapture with which investors greeted the February reporting season appears to be overdone, and won't last, Chanticleer writes for the Financial Review this afternoon.

With the exception of the resources sector, where companies do seem largely well-managed and well-placed to take advantage of rising commodity prices, the abiding theme wasn't that things were better than expected, but rather that they were less worse.

Certainly two of the three major themes that pushed the market up 5.2 per cent in February were driven by relief: The rise in bank stocks (relief that the recommendations from the royal commission weren't as damaging as feared) and Telstra's rise (driven by relief that TPG wouldn't be building a fourth mobile network).

The third big February theme identified by Douglas Orr of Endeavour Equities – the huge rise in iron ore prices following a disaster in Brazil – is very much a one-off.

Most of the results that the market liked from sectors such as media, industrials, retail, energy, healthcare and financials were about companies surviving tough conditions better than expected, rather than delivering really strong growth. JB Hi-Fi, Nine Entertainment Group (publisher of The Australian Financial Review), QBE and Computershare would be a few examples.

Read the full column here

Concerns global demand for oil would be weaker following disappointing US manufacturing data pushed the price of crude lower on Friday, ending the week roughly 3 per cent lower.

On Friday, the price of Brent crude fell 2.3 per cent to $US64.29 a barrel, after advancing early in the session before slumping heavily on demand concerns.

The US ISM manufacturing activity index fell to its lowest level since November 2016 in February, coming in below expectations.

A poll conducted by Reuters suggested analyst are more pessimistic about a price increase this year, as demand for fuel dips in the face of a global economic slowdown.

Commentator Satyajit Das has a column today warning about a new financial product.

Financial markets have short memories. Of late, they've convinced themselves that collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) are much safer instruments than the collateralised debt obligations, or CDOs, on which they're based and which helped precipitate the 2008 crisis. They're wrong - and dangerously so.

Current CLOs outstanding globally total around $US700 billion ($986 billion), with annual new issues of over $US100 billion. That's broadly comparable to subprime CDO volumes in 2008. Both Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and former Fed Chair Janet Yellen have warned about potential risks; regulators in Japan, where banks have been big CLO buyers, are particularly concerned.

The structure of CLOs is economically similar to CDOs. Each pools multiple loans to create synthetic, bond-like investments. Investors buy a slice (or tranche) of the underlying interest and principal cash flows of the portfolio. A defined order of which investors get repaid first and which bear the most losses allocates risk differentially. High-risk CLO equity pieces, which are unrated, are first in line for losses and last for repayment. Less-risky subordinated or mezzanine pieces, typically rated anywhere between BBB and B, rank ahead of equity. Low-risk senior pieces, typically rated A or better, rank first for payments and only bear losses if the equity and subordinated pieces are completely wiped out.

Read the full piece here

The ramifications of AMP's decision to sell its life insurance business in a $3.45 billion deal are filtering through with S&P downgrading AMP Group and its subsiduaries including AMP Bank to A- from A with a negative outlook. Shares are down slightly to $2.38 in trading today.

Furthermore, S&P said the credit rating of AMP Group was likely to be downgraded from its current rating of A- rating following the sale but would refrain from doing so until it had more clarity about AMP's strategy.

An AMP spokesman acknowledged the announcement and the prospect of further actions from ratings agencies as it pursued a less capital intensive model. The global credit rating agency made the announcement on Friday evening after market-close saying the group's credit profile would weaken considerably after the sale of AMP Life to Resolution Life and may continue to deteriorate.

"Consequently, we consider that the creditworthiness of the smaller and less diversified AMP group has weakened and could further moderate following the divestment. We see these pressures also translating through to AMP Bank" S&P's analysts Nico DeLange and Mark Symes said.

Read the full story by James Frost at the Financial Review

A reminder that this time tomorrow we are hosting a subscriber event for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald subscribers where myself, Stephen Bartholomeusz, and business section editor Mathew Dunckley will be discussing the recent reporting season and answering your questions.

Details on how to participate in the on-line event are here

Entering lunch time the S&P/ASX 200 is confidently higher at 6229, a rise of 37 points or 0.6 per cent.

Information technology sector is out-performing today thanks to a 5.7 per cent rise in Afterpay Touch to $20.70 and 3.7 per cent rise in Bravura Solutions. Consumer staples, healthcare, and consumer discretionary are also out-performing today. Utilities and real estate are lagging.

There is a big drop in Evolution Mining today, down 4 per cent to $3.45, and Northern Star resources is down 3.4 per cent to $1.61. Newcrest Mining is down 2.3 per cent to $23.77.

Exploration miner Aurelia Metals has just seen a block trade of 2.7 million shares going through at 89.5 cents. It is up at 5 year highs currently.

Collection House will be chasing Telstra customers for overdue bills after agreeing to buy all of ACM Group's debt ledger, enabling ACM's founder to retire from the industry. Collection house is paying $40.3 million for the entire Purchase Debt Ledger, which has a face value of $400 million, funded through cash reserve and a banking facility. Collection House says it still has access to about $133 million and "remains vigilant to other opportunities". It will have to hire new staff and is offering to hire some of ACM's Sydney-based employees. Shares in Collection House are down 1.1 per cent to $1.35 today compared to a 0.65 per cent rise in the market.

The valuation is based on $75 million in expected recoveries. Collection House affirmed guidance for the top-end of current earnings per share guidance of 15.5 cents.

Last year the Federal Court found ACM engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct when collecting debts from Telstra customers. It was fined $750,000.

"ACM will provide us with useful diversification into the telecommunications sector, as well as increasing our volumes in the banking and finance sector and our capacity in Sydney," chairman Leigh Berkley said.

Crown Resorts' plans to build Australia's tallest building in Melbourne are on hold after the Victorian government turned down its request to delay the start of construction. The state government approved the $1.75 billion, 90-storey Queensbridge hotel tower two years ago, with construction slated to start by this month. Crown and joint-venture partner Schiavello Group applied for a planning extension last month while they obtained financing, but the casino operator on Monday said it had been informally notified that the request had been rejected. Crown shares are up 2.4 per cent to $11.83 today, recovering from a dramatic drop eight sessions ago.

Crown will now look at its options for the project, which would top Q1 in Surfers Paradise as Australia's tallest building.

"Crown retains a 50 per cent ownership interest in the land and will consider the next steps for the property in conjunction with Schiavello," Crown said in a statement. Read the full story from AAP here

Meanwhile, gambling reporter Nick Toscano reports today that Crown Resorts is proposing to make its directors more responsible for oversight at its flagship Melbourne casino after a state government investigation found the gaming giant was failing to monitor and intervene in problem gambling. Read the full story here

Building approval numbers have just come through showing a month on month rise of 2.5 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis, higher than economist forecasts of a 1.5 per cent rise. The annual drop is slightly less worse than expected, with a 28.6 per cent decline in building approvals between January 2018 and January 2019, compared to expectations of a 28.9 per cent decline.

Apartment approvals are down 51 per cent compared to last year, but actually increased 2.7 per cent between December and January on a seasonally adjusted basis.