Market Open: Hump day hike on New York tech recovery; big Aussie earnings, CPI to come | Feb 25

ASX today − Middle of the week, and we’re now hitting the peak in our Aussie earnings season that’s been through late February. It’s well-timed, or at least looks like it, for many of the Johnny-come-latelys, with the bourse headed for a +0.7% hump day hike after New York staged a tech recovery.

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Those green arrows may give traders pause on any of the not-so-great results; others have fared quite badly on even close misses this season.

It really has been a fascinating Oz reporting season for that reason, among many, and it’s one Jonathon Davidson and I will be dissecting further on the latest HotCopper Wire episode this week – that’s out Thursday.

Our Wednesday trading tone will also be impacted by January CPI and fourth-quarter construction work reports coming out today (at 11.30am in Sydney). Early tips have headline CPI (3.8%) and trimmed-mean inflation (3.3%) both sitting unchanged, with softer fuel and travel prices weighing on the read.

RBA governor Michele Bullock is speaking at a fireside chat at Melbourne University this evening, too, where she may speak on those January prints.

Let’s get into the busy earnings slate now − lots to talk about there.

ASX stocks to watch

First up, Nine Entertainment (ASX:NEC) and Adore Beauty (ASX:ABY) among the reporters that dropped yesterday, with the latter giving back some -27% in value. Woodside (ASX:WDS) held a tight +3% advance to close.

Today, Fortescue (ASX:FMG), Woolworths (ASX:WOW), WiseTech (ASX:WTC), Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC), and Yancoal (ASX:YAL) headline proceedings.

It’ll be worth poring over the Woolies reporting to see if they address Coles (ASX:COL) fronting Federal Court; Woolworths is due for its own hearing a little later in the year and will be facing similar allegations on sales.

WiseTech’s should have some interesting tidbits, too, with the main questions pre-release coming on whether Richard White has a succession plan.

Elsewhere, China’s return post-holidays helped lithium carbonate futures up by some +10%. Spodumene followed, over +5%, and that helped PLS Group (ASX:PLS), IGO (ASX:IGO), and MinRes (ASX:MIN). All to watch today.

And while we’re speaking futures and commodities, let’s go there.

Buck and ore

We’ll start with forex, where the Oz dollar buys US 70.6c.

Then, looking at commodities, all in the greenback,

Iron Ore is up +0.8%, selling at $96.65 a tonne in Singapore today,

Brent Crude slipped -0.2%, to $71.33/Bbl,

Gold is selling at $5,172/ounce,

US natgas futures lost -1.9%, to $2.92 per gigajoule.

That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – happy trading.

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