BPO TV

Market wraps 20th August 2020

Morning Bell

Aussie futures are suggesting a retreat of 0.3%, which will trim some of yesterday’s gain of 0.7% and the week to date gain of 0.7%. The S&P500 scaled to a brand new record high, its second in two straight days before falling 0.4%. The Nasdaq met the same fate, scaling to a record before turning negative in the final few hours. Meanwhile, Apple became the first US. company to reach a market cap of $2 trillion, doubling its valuation in two years.

In commodities and FX, the U.S. dollar rose, which saw gold lose 1.6%, down to US$1,939. The oil price fell 0.2% to US$42.76. The Aussie dollar fell 1% and hit 71.85 US cents – falling from its fresh high.

What to watch:

  • Afterpay (ASX:APT) upgraded its guidance levels expecting EBITDA to be $43 million, that’s almost double what APT previously expected.

Companies reporting today:

  • Qantas (ASX:QAN) just reported its profit dived to a $2 billion after tax loss in 2020 financial year, a 334% fall on last year’s profit.
  • Star Entertainment (ASX:SGR) just reported a full year net loss after tax of $95 million after falling 148%.
  • Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) the owners of Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks also just reported results
  • Other companies which have reported include Perpetual (ASX:PPT), Domain (ASX:DHG), Medibank Private (ASX:MPL), and South32 (ASX:S32).

Trading ideas:

  • Ingenia (ASX:INA) is showing that it’s formed a technical short-term bullish uptrend, according to Trading Central’s charting. Goldman Sachs backs INA as a buy with a $5.40 target.
  • BHP (ASX:BHP) was reiterated as a UBS buy with a $40 target.
  • ANZ (ASX:ANZ) was reiterated as a Bell Potter buy following its quarterly update, while its price target increased to $20.