Rio Tinto (RIO), Rackspace Hosting (RAX), Chambers Street

The company increased a cost-cutting target to $1 billion this year from $750 million.

Rio Tinto has maintained its policy of paying out half of the previous year’s dividend in August, despite a sharp slump in commodity prices and underlying profits to $US2.9 billion. We continue to invest in growth, and have reached key milestones in three of our growth projects with the expansion of our Pilbara iron ore infrastructure, first production from our expanded Kitimat aluminium smelter and an agreement to progress the development of the Oyu Tolgoi underground copper mine. Our analysis suggests most reasonable downside scenarios for an iron ore/AUD combination reflect limited NPV downside for Rio and BHP.”For Anglo, lump premiums and the Rand make conclusions more complex.”The barometer will be copper, which has seen long-term margin expectation rise”.

Rio unveiled a $US2 billion share buyback in February this year, which is still ongoing.

Chief executive Sam Walsh said the company was experienced a tough operating environment, which has prompted an increase in cost cutting.

The miner has been slashing capital spending to support its profits in recent years.

The impact of weaker global commodity prices was evident in revenues, which fell $US6.4 billion to $US18.4 billion.

Rio Tinto has revealed its half year profit and dividends. It was at $56.78 on Wednesday.

However, capital expenditure in 2015 is expected to fall to around USD5.50 billion, and the miner said it will be less than USD6.0 billion in 2016.

Net debt rose to $US13.6 billion, from $US12.5 billion at December 2014, easily beating analyst consensus of an increase to $US14.5 billion. Guidance for 2017 remains at around $7.0 billion.

Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) reported the upsurge of 1.95% to close at $49.72 with the overall traded volume of 2.00 million shares.