Latest stock market news videos & Morning Bell

Good morning, well investors might be looking to clip some fresh profits off the table as the futures are today suggesting a dip of 0.2% after the ASX200 so far this week has gained over 4%.

Overnight U.S equities explored new heights.

The Nasdaq-100 hit a record all-time high before running out of path, while the S&P500 saw some profit taking heading lower for the first time in four days and ended 0.3% lower weighed by weaker than expected weekly unemployment claims and also COVID-19 cases their ticking up.

While the blue chip index in the U.S the Dow Jones moved north, gaining ever so slightly rising 0.1% and tracks 3.5% higher this week.

And over in Europe the ECB committed to increasing their pandemic bond buying program to a total of 1 trillion Euros.

The oil price nudged ahead ever so slightly to $37.41 a barrel with OPEC mulling over extending their production cuts to boost the iron ore price and the gold price lost about $6 in value falling to $1,722 an ounce.

The iron ore pricing had a bit of profit taking losing 1.6% but the iron ore price is still holding on to a week to date gain of 9.4% and it last traded at $100 a ton.

Now what to watch today, well Kogan (ASX:KGN) and just handed down their June quarter results with gross profit rising over 130% in the fourth quarter of the financial year.

Active customers for rising to 2 million and that means kogan.com customers grew by over 120,000 in May.

The consensus view for Kogan shares is that they’re trading at a 31 times earning multiple.

Now company’s going ex-division today to watch include ALS (ASX:ALQ), Infratil (IFT) and OFX Group (OFX) goes ex-dividend on Tuesday and remember we do have a public holiday on Monday, also note that if you buy shares before an ex-dividend date you’ll be entitled to that upcoming dividend which is why on the day that a company trades ex-div, shares are usually sold down.

Now to some local trading ideas, Afterpay (ASX:APT) was upgraded by Bell Potter overnight with a $65 price target, after Bell Potter did a deep dive into Afterpay’s profit prospects for the future.

Beacon Lighting (ASX:BLX) is a Citi top small cap pick and they got an extra boost following the government’s homebuilder scheme being announced and Beacon is well-placed to continue to outperform the market.

Their shares have already gained a massive 150% from the COVID-19 bear bottomed lows and BLX trades at a 15% discount to Australian housing retail peers and it’s trading at their earnings multiple of 13 times a forward-looking earnings.

Citi expects Beacon Lighting’s shares to grow 16% to $1.24.

And lastly, UBS initiated coverage of the property group Centuria (ASX:CNI) for the first time saying its UBS’s top by pick for fund managers.

I’m Jessica Amir with Bell Direct, happy trading and stay safe.