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Thank you for joining us. We are back with daily market updates over reporting season, where we aim to set you up for the trading session ahead. We’ll cover global markets, the latest Bell Potter research, and analyst expectations for listed companies reporting their financial results each day.

Overnight we saw yet another tech driven rally. US equities closed higher with artificial intelligence in focus, ahead of the release of economic data that will help shape the Fed’s outlook. At the time of recording, the Dow Jones is up 0.04%, the S&P500 up 0.5%, while the Nasdaq has reached a gain of 0.93%.

The S&P 500 software services index gained as Shares of service almost 3%, while Salesforce and CrowdStrike gained 1.2% and 3.1% respectively.

In other economic news this week, investors will also be monitoring the January non-farm payrolls report out on Wednesday, which was delayed by a partial US government shutdown and the must anticipated January consumer price index, out on Friday.

What to watch today:

• Following US equities, the Australian market is set to rise 0.35% at the open, according to the SPI futures.
• In Bell Potter’s latest research, the broker has lowered their price target on Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL), cautioning ahead of the H1 results set to be released on the 19th, however have maintained their Buy rating, noting the primary growth driver should be the acquired growth in the pathology business and that while their EBITDA estimate is in line with consensus, their margins are higher than consensus due to a lower revenue estimate.
• Bell Potter also released a Buy rating on REA Group (ASX:REA) and lowered their 12-month price target to $211. At the current share price of $168.10, this implies 25.5% share price growth in a year.
• So far this reporting season, 13 companies have reported results, with 3 beating analyst expectations, 5 in line with expectations and 5 missing expectations. Today Amotiv (ASX:AOV) and Computershare (ASX:CPU) are set to report today.
• And Gold has topped $5,000 an ounce, and the US dollar fell. Oil is up to US$64.29. US President Trump struck optimism over the negotiations with Iran regarding a potential deal on defusing Iran’s uranium enrichment capabilities. Oil prices had soared in previous weeks after the escalating tensions between both countries drove markets to consider the risk of the US enforcing sanctions on Iranian oil to a greater extent.