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Good morning and thanks for your company, I’m Jessica I’m here with Bell Direct.

Well the Australian share market is on positive leads from global markets, despite these three major indices on Wall Street closing lower.

Now attention today is on three key things, 1. inflationary data out for Australia at 11:30am, 2. Coles (ASX:COL) first quarter sales rose 12% with buying mounting in Coles and 3. what the Federal Reserve will announce, but let’s just touch on overseas markets first.

Well, U.S stocks did see selling overnight awaiting the U.S Federal Reserve’s announcement, the Nasdaq was down the most 1.4% with the S&P 500 ending 0.5% lower while the Dow only closed slightly lower however, retailers rallied ahead on hopes of the economy there reopening.

Coles shares rose 7%, smaller companies which tend to be more exposed to economic growth or weakness also outperformed, which is why we saw the Russell 2000 index gain 1.3%.

And in after-hours trade, Google parent Alphabet, their shares rose 7% after reporting stronger than expected revenue of $41 billion, while it’s EPS disappointed.

So all in all, I’d be expecting Google parent shares Alphabet to rally when Wall Street reopens.

Also overnight, European markets marched ahead a help by the reporting season there continuing to unravel, BPS shares rose 3% despite weaker than expected profits.

UBS shares charged up 7% after announcing quarterly profits rose a 40%.

Now touching on commodities, the oil WTI price has continued to fall amid the oversupply glut, it’s now $12.84.

Gold has lost a bit of a shine again it’s now $1,720 an ounce, while the Aussie dollar has firmed to a seven-week high it’s now 64.90 U.S cents.

In terms of what to watch today, on the economic front Australian price rises for the first quarter will be out at 11:30am, also known as CPI and this is particularly looked at by the RBA in light of their interest rate decisions and how much that they are going to continue to *implement* quantitative easing.

Now Australia’s largest or second largest retailer Coles (ASX:COL), they reported a 12% rise in quarterly sales to $9.2 billion fuelled by supermarket sales and interestingly online sales for Coles grew 14%.

Elsewhere, Brickworks (ASX:BKW), one of Australia’s longest paying dividend companies was upgraded to a buy by Bell Potter.

Now let’s look at a trading idea, well almond growers Select Harvest (ASX:SHV) started exporting shipments to China and Select Harvest also announced over 70% of 2020 crop has been locked in to sell, at a price of between $8 – $8.50 a kilo.

Now, all of this de-risks the company’s outlook and (ASX:SHV) is also harvested 97% of its orchids and processed 25%, so what does that mean?

Well Bell Potter’s researchers found that it’s ahead of its crop forecasts, while the price is a little less than expected, all in all, as water costs are falling, earnings for Select Harvest should rise and this is why Bell Potter increased its 12-month price target for select harvest to $8 and that implies 19% growth.

Now what to watch this evening, well the U.S gets a first quarter economic growth data which the market is pricing in a fall of 4% and later today all eyes will be on the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision, not likely to drop rates for now but we’re looking at how much they’re going to ease rates in the future and continue to introduce or continue to buy bonds known as quantitative easing.

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

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