a2 Milk dropped as much as 6.3 per cent to $14.95 on opening but is now back up to $15.48, which is 3 per cent lower than yesterday's close.

Within the management's presentation to today's Macquarie Conference a2 advises it invested strongly in the first half of 2018-19 and this continued into the second half "and this rate of investment will continue in 2020". It doubled its marketing spend since December which will affect profit margins.

"Following a very strong first half performance, and encouraged by growing market share in China, we are reinvesting the benefits of scale into increased marketing activities in the second half," a2 advises the market.

"This is intended to drive brand awareness, predominantly in China, and the US. With this investment on track, we are expecting to further increase our marketing investment in 2019-20."

It also warned increases in dairy pricing may affect margins next financial year.

Bega Cheese just announced it has won a fight against Kraft Heinz to keep using the current packing for Smooth and Crunchy Peanut Butter.

Kraft Heinz took Bega Cheese to court after it purchased the peanut butter product as part of its partial aquisition of Mondelez Grocery Business in 2017. Kraft Heinz claimed ownership "of the legal rights in the peanut butter trade dr4ess associate with the product packaging, comprising a jar with a yellow lid and a yellow label with a blue or red peanut device with the jar having a brown appearance when filled". It tried to stop Bega using the existing packing, but the Federal Court has ruled it can continue to use what is known as trade dress.

Bega shares are up 2.9 per cent to a seven-week high of $5.20.

The S&P/ASX 200 has opened with a rise of 13.5 points to 6339.

a2 Milk has dropped 6 per cent on the bell to $15.02 and trading is very heavy with $9.7 million worth of shares changing hands already.

ANZ Bank is up 1.4 per cent following its good half-year results.

Mineral Resources says earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation for the full year is expected to be between $360 million and $390 million. Analysts were expecting lower than this and the share price has jumped by 3.5 per cent on opening to $16.14, but is already back down to $16.02.

Mineral Resources says this result presumes spodumene concentrate is priced at $US682.38 per tonne, 62 per cent iron ore plus the price of shipping (CFR) is at $US83.89 per tonne, and the Australian dollar stays around US72.3 cents.

Mineral Resources shares last traded at $15.59.

• Wattle Health has gone into a trading halt pending an announcement.
• Treasury Wine confirms guidance of earnings growth of 25 per cent in current financial year and up to 20 per cent in 2019-20.
• Blackham Resources has terminated the role of founder and CEO Bryan Dixon after 13 years. Executive chair Milan Jerkovic will take over temporarily, with a pay rise. CEO Richard Boffey has resigned.
• Namoi Cotton has taken a $3.6 million impairment, leading to a $556,000 full year loss.

ANZ Bank's profits rose 2 per cent to $3.56 billion in the first half, as cost cutting and lower charges for bad loans helped to contain the impact of weak conditions in retail banking. Unveiling the result, chief executive Shayne Elliott repeated the bank had been too cautious towards the housing market, but added that it had a "momentum issue" and more customers were getting into difficulty with mortgage payments.

The bank on Wednesday announced the result in its cash profit, on a continuing basis, as it kept its interim dividend on hold at 80c a share, payable on 1 July. The result was messy due to several divestments and one-off costs, and including ANZ's discontinued operations, ANZ's cash profit rose 22 per cent to $5.3 billion. On a statutory basis, its earnings were down 5 per cent to $3.17 billion.

Analysts had forecast a cash profit of about $3.4 billion and an unchanged dividend of 80c a share.

ANZ said its net interest income fell 1 per cent in the year, mainly due to a 13 basis point narrowing in its net interest margin, which measures the bank's cost of funding compared with what it charges for loans.

Read the full story from Clancy Yeates here.

Warren Buffett's intervention in Occidental Petroleum's $US37 billion ($53 billion) unsolicited bid for Anadarko may tip the scales in the oil industry's biggest bidding war in decades.

In a stunning escalation of the two-week-old contest for Anadarko, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Tuesday disclosed plans to inject $US10 billion ($14 billion) into Occidental in exchange for preferred stock and warrants. The bombshell landed in the midst of Anadarko board deliberations about whether Occidental's offer is superior to a lower but already agreed-to deal with Chevron.

The arrangement was announced just two days after Occidental's corporate jet flew to Buffett's hometown of Omaha. It's contingent on the deal for Anadarko closing and would be his biggest investment in more than three years aside from Apple. It also answers the question about what to do with a swelling cash pile just ahead of Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting this weekend. Furthermore, the transaction is a major sign of approval for the future of the Permian Basin, the world's largest oilfield, from an investor who has previously plowed dollars into oil refiners, drillers and Canada's oil-sands.

Read the full story from Bloomberg here

IG MARKETS SPONSORED POST

ASX futures up 20 points or 0.3% to 6324 at 7.15am AEST

AUD flat at 70.48 US cents
On Wall St: Dow +0.2%, S&P 500 +0.1%, Nasdaq -0.8%
In New York, BHP -0.7%, Rio -0.7%, Atlassian +0.1%
In Europe: Stoxx 50 +0.4%, FTSE -0.3%, CAC +0.1%, DAX +0.1%
Spot gold +0.3% to $US1283.61 an ounce at 1.22pm New York time
Brent crude +1.1% to $US72.85 a barrel
US oil +0.6% to $US63.87 a barrel
Iron ore +0.1% to $US94.17 a tonne
Dalian iron ore +2.1% to 639 yuan
LME aluminium -1.6% to $US1798 a tonne
LME copper +0.3% to $US6415 a tonne
2-year yield: US 2.27%, Australia 1.31%
5-year yield: US 2.28%, Australia 1.37%
10-year yield: US 2.50%, Australia 1.78%, Germany +0.01%
Gap between US, AUD 10-year yields: 72 basis points

IG MARKETS SPONSORED POST

Wall Street closed flat to slightly higher overnight, in a day of soft activity that might well be chalked up to the numerous event risks awaiting markets in the second half of the week. The key stories in European and North American trade centred around European growth data; along with the ongoing US earnings season. And on balance, belying the lukewarm day in global stocks, the news was relatively positive. European economic data broadly beat expectations, resulting in a lift in the Euro and European yields; and after the US close, Apple Inc reported, and is trading higher in post-market trade.

The big news in the Asia region yesterday was China's highly anticipated manufacturing PMI numbers. Recall: it's been this data-point that has been the centre of fears about China's economic slowdown – and has been used as the barometer for policy makers success in re-stimulating the Middle Kingdom's economic activity. For one, yesterday's print was underwhelming. Anticipated to print at 50.5, it came in at 50.1, stoking concerns that manufacturing in China could be slipping back towards a "contractionary" condition – that is, a print below 50, and forecasts a potential slip in activity in the broader Chinese economy.

SPI Futures are indicating today that the ASX200 will open 15 points higher this morning. A possible inhibitor of upside in the market this week is that we are on the cusp of our big banks' confession season.

Good morning and welcome to today's Markets Live blog. It is a busy day today, so let's get going with all the news.

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

This blog is not intended as financial advice.