Starting off overseas, it was a relatively quiet day for Wall St on its reopen from Monday’s public holiday, as all 3 of the major indexes advanced 0.1%.
What to watch today:
- Looking now at today, the ASX is set to extend on yesterday’s gains with the SPI futures indicating a 0.5% jump at the open of trade today.
- Pivoting to a reporting season update, NAB (ASX:NAB) reported a 30% jump in net profit to $2.21 billion, and a 16% jump in cash earnings to $2.02 billion for the quarter to December.
- Queensland based insurer Suncorp (ASX:SUN) saw a massive reduction in profit after a period of increased natural hazard events. November’s hailstorm in particular was costly, as claims drove Suncorp $453 million over allowance for natural disasters. Their cash earnings of $270 million represented around a third of last years, while the dividend has been cut from 63c per share to 17c per share.
- And look out for other companies reporting today, including Dexus (ASX:DXS), Santos (ASX:STO) and TechnologyOne (ASX:TNE).
- So far this reporting season, 69 companies have released their results, with 26 beating expectations, 26 in line with expectations, and 17 missing expectations.
- Bell Potter’s research team have maintained their buy rating on diversified industrial services group SRG Global (ASX:SRG), and increased their 12-month price target from $3 per share to $3.15 per share off the back of solid results released yesterday and an upgrade in guidance.
- And in commodities,
- Crude oil is trading down a further 1% to US$62.25 per barrel, after it was announced that the US and Iran had reached a ‘general agreement’ on a potential nuclear deal that would pave the way towards a lift in sanctions on Iran, and reduced risk of war in the region.
- In precious metals both gold and silver are trading down over 2%, with gold falling to US$4882 per ounce, and silver down to US$73.50 per ounce. The decline can be attributed to a number of factors, including a strengthening US dollar, reduced market liquidity due to the public holidays, and geopolitical developments reducing safe haven demand.
