Morning Bell 12 August

US equities closed in the red overnight ahead of the July inflation report. The Dow Jones closed 0.45% lower, the S&P500 declined 0.25% and the Nasdaq declined 0.3%.

European markets were mostly lower. The German DAX dropped 0.34%, France’s CAC down 0.57%, while the FT100 gained 0.37% and the STOXX600 saw little change, down just 0.06%.

Locally yesterday, the ASX advanced 0.43% with materials and consumer staples in the lead, while consumer discretionary stocks and tech declined the most.

What to watch today:

• The SPI futures are suggesting the Australian market will drop 0.15% at the open this morning, following Wall Street overnight.
• In economic data today, the RBA will announce its next interest rate decision. Its highly expected the Central Bank will announce a 25 basis point cut.
• Companies reporting their earnings results today include Life360 (ASX:360), Computershare (ASX:CPU), Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN) and SGH (ASX:SGH) just to name a few.
• In commodities,
  • Crude oil is up 0.45% to US$64.16 per barrel after last week’s heavy drop, following President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the Ukraine war, easing fears of disrupted Russian supply.
  • The safe haven gold dropped 1.54% currently trading at US$3,346.93 an ounce after Trump announced that the metal would not face tariffs, easing concerns of a share increase in gold import costs.
  • And iron ore is in the green up 0.73% at US$101.96, so keep watch of iron ore miners today.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintain a Buy rating on JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH) and has reduced their price target to $119. At the current share price of $107.83 this implies 10.4% share price growth in a year.
• And Trading Central have identified a bearish signal in Domino’s Pizza (ASX:DMP) indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $18.68 to the range of $13.70 to $14.60 over 28 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.