22nd February 2021
Morning Bell - Jessica Amir
The Aussie share market futures are suggesting a 0.2% fall.
Australia’s vaccine rollout begins today and it’s the final hurrah week of reporting season with results out from LendLease Group (ASX:LLC) and NIB Holdings (ASX:NHF) today, plus Afterpay (ASX:APT) and Zip (ASX:Z1P) on Thursday.
Australian wage data is out for the quarter on Wednesday – expected to show wage growth slowed from 1.4% to 1.1% over the year.
What to watch today:
- Copper – the Copper price rose 3.9% to a new nine-year high on strong Chinese demand – so watch large caps: BHP (ASX:BHP), OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL), Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) and in small caps watch: Castillo Copper (ASX:CCZ), Aeris Resources (ASX:AIS) and Hot Chili (ASX:HCH).
- BlueScope Steel (ASX:BSL) reported its first-half net profit after tax jumped 78% from a year ago, to $330.3m, beating expectations of $311m.
- Costa Group (ASX:CGC) reported a massive 108% increase in NPAT to $59.4m in 2020, surging past expectations.
- Other results to watch: BIN, CNU, EVT, GDI, LLC, NHF, NWH, OML, RWC.
- Keep an eye on some of the most traded stocks from Friday: Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) which gained 32% and Integrated Payment Technologies (ASX:IP1) which fell 28%.
Trading ideas:
- Citi upgraded QBE Insurance’s (ASX:QBE) Buy rating with an increased $10.95 price target.
- Bell Potter upgraded Adacel Technologies’ (ASX:ADA) Buy rating with a higher price target of $1.25.
- Centaurus Metals (ASX:CTM), NRW Holdings (ASX:NWH) and Weebit Nano (ASX:WBT) are giving off bullish charting signals according to Trading Central.