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US equities rallied overnight, regaining ground after the S&P500 and the Nasdaq suffered their worst weekly decline in nearly two months. The Dow Jones traded 376.66 points higher or 1.11%, the S&P500 climbed 1.14% and the Nasdaq jumped 1.48%. And the energy minerals sector was the biggest laggard across US markets, with oil and gas companies such as EQT Corporation and Marathon Oil weighing on the sector the most.

European markets also advanced in the first session of the week, as investors braced for US inflation data and a euro zone GDP estimate. The STOXX 600 closed 0.9% higher, Germany’s DAX up 0.6%, France’s CAC up 1.1% and the FTSE100 up 0.8%.

What to watch today:

• The SPI futures are suggesting our local market will open 0.67% higher this morning.
• Reporting season is well underway, with a long list of companies set to release their half year results today. Some big names reporting today include Breville (ASX:BRG), Challenger (ASX:CGF), Charter Hall (ASX:CHC), CSL Limtied (ASX:CSL), Dexus (ASX:DXS), James Hardie (ASX:JHX) and Seek (ASX:SEK), to name a few.
• Suncorp (ASX:SUN) is set to go ex-dividend, which may see its share price fall as investors take their profits.
• In economic data out today, NAB will release its business confidence data for January at 10:30am and Westpac will release its data on consumer confidence for February 11:30am AEDT. Then tonight we’ll be watching out for the unemployment rate out in the UK and CPI out in the US.
• In commodities,

• • Oil prices are slightly lower after rebounding at o above US$80 per barrel in the late hours of trade, after falling much of the session as investors balance supplies from Turkey and Russia while awaiting the US CPI report.
  • Gold is down 0.5% and is sliding toward its lowest levels in five weeks and is remaining under the pressure.
  • Iron ore is 0.5% higher at US$126 per tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintain a BUY rating on Beach Energy (ASX:BPT) following the release its half year earnings, which saw underlying EBITDA of $491m and NPAT of $191m, both consistent with Bell Potter’s estimates. The company also declared a 2cps fully franked dividend. The energy company has strong, fully funded production growth outlook, diversified across five energy basins and across four separate gas markets. Bell Potter have lowered their price target from $2.25 to $2.21 and at BPT’s current share price of $1.52, this implies 45.9% share price growth in a year.
• Trading Central have identified a bearish signal in CSR Limited (ASX:CSR), indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $5.04 to the range of $4.98 to $5.09 over 23 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.