The four day sell-off on Wall St came to an end on Monday as corporate earnings results boosted investor sentiment ahead of another big reporting season week and the release of key inflation data out later this week. The Dow Jones advanced 1.16%, it’s best day in almost 2-months. The S&P 500 added 0.9%, and the tech heavy Nasdaq ended Monday’s session up 0.61%, however was restricted by a 1% drop in Tesla.

Corporate earnings season has kicked off with a bang, with results stronger than expected. Of the 85% of companies that have posted their quarterly results so far 80% have beat Wall St forecasts according to FactSet. 

Over in Europe, markets closed mixed on Monday amid the ongoing release of corporate earnings results and ahead of the release of two key inflation prints later in the week. The STOXX 600 closed 0.1% higher, however the German DAX ended the day marginally lower. In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell 0.13% and the French CAC finished the day off 0.06% higher.

The local market closed 0.22% lower on Monday, weighed down by investors selling out of the healthcare and financials sectors. ResMed continued its sell-off yesterday, with the healthcare company falling a further 4.23% on the back of poor performance for the stock in the US on Friday. Despite this, Goldman Sachs has said while ResMed’s latest update was disappointing on a margins front, performance should improve soon and this dip in the share price presents as a buying opportunity. 

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open higher this morning with the SPI futures suggesting a rise of 0.4% at the opening bell.
• In terms of economic data, both the Westpac consumer confidence data for August and the NAB business confidence data for July will be released today with the market expecting a decline in both readings.
• On the commodities front this morning,
  • Oil is trading down 0.32% at US$82.56 dollars/barrel as Saudi Arabia has hinted at further production cuts 
  • Gold is trading 0.27% lower at US$1936 dollars/ounce. 
  • And iron ore, trading at yesterday’s reading of US$106.50/tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Aeris Resources (ASX:AIS) however has significantly reduced the 12-month price target on the copper miner following the release of June quarter results including further deferrals of production at Mt Colin and Jaguar being placed on care and maintenance mode, contributing to higher overall costs and lower production.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Platinum Capital (ASX:PMC), following the formation of a pattern over a period of 20-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $1.30 to the range of $1.21-$1.23, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.