Huon Aquaculture is reducing this year's harvest tonnage from 20,000 tonnes to 19,000 tonnes and expecting operating costs to increase after warmer than expected water and a jellyfish bloom in the first quarter led to gill necrosis. Full year earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortisation are being cut to between $50 million and $55 million, down from February's guidance of between $64 million and $68 million. The previous year's operating EBITDA was $71.8 million.

However, Huon believes it can rebuild and deliver guidance for 2019-20 of 25,000 tonnes and 2020-21 harvest of 30,000 tonnes.

"A moon jellyfish bloom in the Huon River and D'Entrecasteaux Channel in November 2018 which initially caused an increase in fish mortalities has since deliver a more serious secondary impact through the development of gill necrosis," it tells the market this morning.

"While the high mortality rates we reported in January and February have now returned to normal levels, the presence of gill necrosis has meant fish growth rates returning to normal levels has taken longer than initially expected, exacerbated by the slow return to normal water temperatures."

Huon shares last traded at $4.56, down from $4.70 at the start of last week.

Retail Food Group has responded to a story published over the weekend exposing their practice of extending food use. In a series of memos, obtained by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, the chain's owner, Retail Food Group (RFG), instructed Michel's Patisserie franchisees to ignore expiry dates on packaging and adopt a new shelf-life extension date, ranging between two and six months for frozen cakes, frozen scrolls, and cake decorations.

"RFG follows strict standards with regard to food quality and any product date extension was granted following written approval from the supplier and with consumer safety top of mind," it tells the market this morning.

"Regardless, RFG has taken voluntary action and is in the process of withdrawing any products which had received approved date extensions from our suppliers."

It says shelf-life extensions came from "less than 1 per cent of its supplier network".

RFG says it has not been contacted by regulators regarding food safety standards and would fully co-operate if it were.

Shares last traded at 22.5 cents, up from an all-time low of 16 cents on March 15.

Westpac's half-year profit has slumped 22 per cent, as the bank felt the impact of hefty customer compensation payouts in its wealth management arm. The country's second largest bank said cash earnings were $3.29 billion in the six months to March, a 22 per cent fall compared with the same half year, after it took $896 million in provisions for customer remediation in the half.

The provisions, which had already been announced, reduced its after cash profit by $617 million in the half. The bank left its dividend unchanged at 94c a share. "This is a disappointing result reflecting weaker business conditions and the bank dealing decisively with outstanding issues, including remediation and resetting our wealth strategy," said chief executive Brian Hartzer.

Read the full story from Clancy Yeates here. Westpac shares hit a seven-month high of $28.175 last Thursday and closed at $27.44 on Friday.

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ASX futures up 31 points or 0.5% to 6350 on Saturday morning

AUD +0.3% to 70.18 US cents
On Wall St: Dow +0.8%, S&P 500 +1%, Nasdaq +1.6%
In New York, BHP +2.1%, Rio +2.6%, Atlassian +1.3%, Tesla +4.5%
In Europe: Stoxx 50 +0.4%, FTSE +0.4%, CAC +0.2%, DAX +0.6%
Spot gold +0.7% to $US1279.11 an ounce
Brent crude +0.1% to $US70.83 a barrel
US oil +0.2% to $US61.94 a barrel
Iron ore unchanged at $US94.17 a tonne
Dalian exchange closed
LME aluminium -1.1% to $US1795.50 a tonne
LME copper +1.1% to $US6236 a tonne
2-year yield: US 2.33%, Australia 1.31%
5-year yield: US 2.32%, Australia 1.38%
10-year yield: US 2.53%, Australia 1.79%, Germany 0.02%
10-year US/Australia yield gap: 74 basis points

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The ASX was poised for a strong start this morning but that could be tempered as Donald Trump threatened higher tariffs on Chinese goods in reponsoe to slow progress on trade talks between the two countries. Markets are going to be digesting some conflicting information to begin the week. Wall Street ended last week's trading with a boost, following another economic release, this time Non-Farm Payrolls figures, that could reasonably be dubbed "goldilocks".

Because of this lead from Wall Street, the last traded price in SPI Futures has the ASX200 adding 31 points this morning. However, the true extent of these implied gains has been thrown into question, after the weekend's news flow hurled up a series of "bad" news stories.

In an act that might be described as equivalent to a child "chucking their toys out of the pram" for attention, Kim Jong Un's ordered the launch of new missile tests over the weekend. While last night, US President Trump has suggested increasing tariffs on China if no trade-deal is struck this week.

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.