Baby-formula maker Bubs Australia is up 16.7 per cent to 70 cents this morning after announcing a joint venture with a Chinese-listed company to market and distribute its formula and organic baby food in China. Bubs has signed a memorandum of understanding with Beingmate Baby & Child Food Co, which has 30,000 stores.

"Under the proposed Joint Venture, Bubs will supply infant formula and organic baby food products to Beingmate's distribution network...[and] will finalise a sales and marketing plan to cover both Bubs Organic baby food range which is sold in around 500 stores in China, and Bubs infant formula which is currently sold into China via various cross-border e-Commerce and Online to Offline platforms".

Perthlings have been waiting for wave energy developer Carnegie Energy to lodge its half year results, and this morning it has - revealing a $45 million loss due to a $35 million write down in its wave energy intellectual property and $6 million from it solar micro-grid business. Net tangible assets per share have dropped from 42 cents to 4 cents.

In a bid to reduce costs Carnegie sacked 28 staff and is trying to sell its Energy Made Clean business. Trading is still suspended. Shares last traded at 0.4 cents.

The bell has rung on the ASX and trading has started. Myer is up 18.3 per cent from 41 cents to 48.5 cents after reporting a $38.4 million profit for the half.

And the index has climbed 14 points already to 6215, thanks to gains in BHP, Woolworths, Newcrest and Suncorp.

Brambles is down today as it goes ex-dividend.

Cor Cordis were appointed receivers and managers of Coolgardie Minerals on Friday, 1 March. The company was formerly known as Golden Eagle Mining. Shares have been suspended since 5 February, when they last traded at 5.2 cents.

"Due to the large number of shareholders, corresponding individually with shareholders is expensive and time consumers," receiver and manager Clifford Stuart Rocke wrote to shareholders this morning.

"Accordingly, shareholders are requested to refrain from contacting our office at this time. The Receivers and Managers will provide updates by way of announcements to the ASX from time to time".

Don't call them, they will call you (or write to you). Recently the company borrowed about $1 million from its chairman and the father of another director "after having considered the potential sources of funds available to Coolgardie Minerals at the time and the costs of those funds to Coolgardie Minerals".

The franchising giant behind Gloria Jeans, Donut King, Brumby's Bakery and other well-known chains has had the goodwill on its balance sheet called into question, after it valued its brands at $52 million despite mounting losses and financial strife. Retail Food Group's goodwill is keeping the ASX-listed group's balance sheet in the black, with its net assets now sitting at $19.5 million. A further write-down of its $52 million in goodwill could put its net assets in a negative position.

Other challenged retailers have slashed their goodwill, with department store Myer, for instance, cutting its goodwill from $465 million to zero last year. RFG, which also owns Crust Pizza, Pizza Capers and Michel's Patisserie, cut its goodwill from $270 million in 2017, and in the six months to December 31 sliced it again from $144 million to $52 million.

But even that has been queried in light of the $111 million net loss it incurred in the last half, as its network shed 93 stores and earnings fell 132 per cent in its food manufacturing and distribution arm. Retail Food Group's shares last traded at 24 cents.

Nine Entertainment Co's top institutional shareholder has cautioned the diversified media company against buying ad-man John Singleton's shares in radio group Macquarie Media, as contract talks with presenter Alan Jones remain ongoing. Nine, the owner of this newspaper, also controls 54.5 per cent of Macquarie Media following its merger with Fairfax Media last year. Macquarie Media in turn owns AM radio stations including Melbourne's 3AW and Sydney's 2GB, the home of Alan Jones.

This week, advertising mogul John Singleton, who owns most of the remaining shares in Macquarie Media, signalled he would be willing to sell his 32 per cent stake in the business to either Nine or institutional investors. "It's inevitable I will sell it. I will not hang on to it and be a minority shareholder," he said, according to The Australian newspaper.

But Sondal Bensan, an analyst at Pendal Group, which owns 7.5 per cent of Nine, cautioned the media company's management against the move. "I think there is too much risk inherent in taking 100 per cent in MRN [Macquarie Media] given the personalities involved," he said on Tuesday.

Shares in Nine last traded at $1.74 and Macquarie Media at $1.78. Read the full story from John McDuling and Jennifer Duke here.

Myer has reported a $38.4 million half-year net profit, swinging back into the black after significant write downs drove the department store to a $476 million loss in the crucial December half a year earlier. The iconic retailer said on Wednesday that total sales in the six months to January 26 fell 2.8 per cent to $1.67 billion, and were down 2.3 per cent on a comparable basis.

Shares last traded at a six-week high of 41 cents.

That is a slowing of the sales decline seen a year earlier, when they fell 3.6 per cent in a total basis and 3 per cent on a comparable basis. Myer said its profit margin ticked up by almost a full percentage point as it prioritised private label products as part of a strategy being implemented by its new chief executive John King, with sales of those products growing 3.7 per cent.

Read Patrick Hatch's story here, with more to come after results conference call

IG MARKETS SPONSORED POST

SPI futures up 17 points or 0.3% to 6197 at about 7.25am AEDT

AUD -0.1% to 70.86 US cents (Overnight low 7059)

On Wall St at 3.24pm: Dow +0.1% S&P 500 flat Nasdaq +0.2%

IG MARKETS SPONSORED POST

There seems little will to move the US equity market, with the losses and gains coming very much on the margins. The technicals are still indicating that the S&P500 has reached a short-term exhaustion point. The RSI has broken trend and stopped its climb in its tracks, while the MACD is flashing signs that momentum is shifting to the downside. Several factors might be at play here. The growth outlook has improved and the VIX, while off its lows, is still at a paltry 14.63 currently. So, outright fear can't be to blame. Furthermore, the major European, and a handful of the top Asian, indices clocked respectable gains yesterday. US equities just seem to be having trouble attracting buyers at these levels.

It might be sensible to consider where the global economy is now as "late cycle", and still heading at some point in the medium term to a period of contraction. Australia will get its economic health-check today, too. GDP is released this morning, and the feeling is its been some time since a GDP number has garnered such anticipation. The RBA met yesterday, and aside from leaving the cash rate at 1.50 per cent for a 31st consecutive month, reiterated their belief that, based on a forecast tightening of the labour market and a subsequent lift in wage growth, the domestic economy still possesses the fundamental capacity to expand.

Good morning and welcome to today's Markets Live blog.

Your editor today is Lucy Battersby (lbattersby@theage.com.au).

This blog is not intended as financial advice.