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ASX today − Australian shares are heading up again, with a modest gain on Wall Street now that it’s returned from its long weekend, helping alongside what has been a relatively exciting February reporting season.
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All three major U.S. indexes returned from their Monday (in the States) break to gains of around +0.2% to +0.3%, helping ASX’s green run.
This little tidbit should be quite interesting for bulls: CFRA chief strategist Sam Stovall told the AFR today that the S&P increasing in January and February has led to a full-year total return every single year since World War II.
Maybe CY26 is the year of the bull, as well as Year of the Horse.
And then of course there’s our reporting season, which has delivered so far.
The Oz bourse has kept lifting on our bluest of blue-chips sharing strong reports, including CBA (ASX:CBA) in Week 7, then BHP (ASX:BHP) Tuesday.
It all keeps rolling on, too, because when we turn to stock news…
ASX stocks to watch
It’s another bumper reporting day Down Under, with major headliners including Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) − that’ll be post-close − as well as NAB (ASX:NAB), Santos (ASX:STO), Mirvac (ASX:MGR), and Magellan (ASX:MFG).
Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU) was one of Wednesday’s early reporters, telling shareholders it had banked a $288 million net loss for CY25 on weaker sands conditions and $566M in pre-tax impairments and inventory write-downs.
And, Suncorp (ASX:SUN) didn’t fare well, either; The Queensland insurer struggled in CY25 after as many as nine large natural disasters led to 71K claims.
JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH) has been one of many examples of all the reporting season winners, bumping another +8.1% post-results on broker upgrades.
Keep an eye on HotCopper today, too − we’re at the RIU Explorers Conference in Freo and will be sharing plenty from the floor. Companies you’ll hear from include Alligator (ASX:AGE), WIN Metals (ASX:WIN), and more.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar is buying US 70.8c.
Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,
Iron Ore has slipped -0.25%, to sell at $96.40 a tonne in Singapore today,
Brent Crude is -1.9%, at $67.32/Bbl,
Gold is selling at $4,893/ounce,
US natgas futures dumped another -6%, to $3.05/gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – happy trading.
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