Morning Bell 14 August

Wall Street saw a positive trading session with all three major US benchmarks closing in the green. The Dow gained 400 points for a second session, up 1.04%. The S&P500 reached another record high and closed 0.32% higher, while the tech- heavy Nasdaq gained 0.14%.

European markets also extended gains after Wall Street’s record highs, expectations for lower U.S. Federal Reserve rates continue driving the major indexes to all-time highs. The STOXX600 advanced 0.54%.

Locally yesterday the Australian market closed down 0.6%, dragged down by utilities and financials, while materials and healthcare were in the lead. Today’s session however, is looking more positive.

What to watch today:

The SPI futures are suggesting our local market will rise 0.35% at the open this morning.

Also on watch today are the companies reporting their earnings results. So far this morning at the time of recording, the highlights are:

• Westpac (ASX:WBC) posted $1.9 billion third quarter profit,
• Suncorp (ASX:SUN) jumped 52% to $1.8 billion,
• And Telstra (ASX:TLS) profit grew 31% to $2.34 billion, and the company declared a 19cps payout.

And keep watch of the share price movements for other companies reporting, including the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:ASX), Origin Energy (ASX:ORG) and Pro Medicus (ASX:PME). In commodities,

• crude oil has called 0.64% to US$62.74 per barrel, the lowest in over two months, after the International Energy Agency forecast a growing oil surplus this year and next.
• The price of gold is up 0.3% to US$3,357.68 an ounce as investors weighed the federal reserve rate outlook following the latest CPI data announcement. July’s headline inflation came in at 2.7%, below the 2.8% forecast, while core inflation rose to 3.1% from 2.9%.
• Seaborne iron ore is down 0.37% to US$102.03, while futures hold near two week highs, on expectations of further steel production cuts in China.

And in economic data today, the unemployment rate for July will be out at 11:30am AEST.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a Buy rating on Life360 (ASX:360) after the company reported 2Q2025 revenue of US$115.4 million, 6% ahead of Bell Potter’s forecast of US$109.1 million and adjusted EBITDA of US$20.3 million, 59% above their forecast of US$12.8 million. Bell Potter have increased their 12 month price target by 27% to $47.50, and at the current share price of $40.77, this implies 16.5% share price growth in a year.
• And Trading Central have identified a bearish signal in Pro Medicus (ASX:PME) indicating that the stock price may fall from the range of $297.15, to the range of $271 - $276 over 28 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.