It’s been the strongest week of reporting season so far, with a flurry of big companies releasing their results. Sophia Mavridis sits down with Bell Financial Group’s CIO Will Riggall to unpack the biggest stories, market movers, and sector trends.

In this week’s video, Sophia and Will cover:

• macro factors affecting the market at the moment
• notable results including JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH), Bluescope Steel (ASX:BSL), and CommBank (ASX:CBA) and what they mean for the market
• BHP’s (ASX:BHP) results and a look at the broader resources sector
• the best and worst performing stocks of the week
• stocks to watch out for next week.

Starting in the US this morning, where Wall St saw a positive day lead by a rally in the technology sector. Megacap Nvidia lead the way with a 2% gain, after Meta announced that they would be expanding their deal to use millions of Nvidia AI chips in their data centre buildout. At the close of the day’s trade, the S&P500 advanced 0.6%, the Dow Jones added 0.3%, while the tech heavy Nasdaq saw the biggest gains with a 0.8% jump.

What to watch today:

• Locally today, the ASX is expected to follow Wall St and add to its winning streak of late, with the SPI futures pointing to a 0.5% climb at the open of trade.
• As for reporting season, it’s a busy day today with a stack of notable companies releasing results. Australia’s largest Telco Telstra (ASX:TLS) this morning announced a 9% increase in net profit to $1.1 billion, as its revenue remained flat however expenditure had declined. It will pay an interim dividend of 10.5 cents per share, up from 9.5 cents last year.
• Although not released at time of recording, keep an eye on a number of big results to come out throughout this morning, including Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), Wesfarmers (ASX:WES), Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC), Downer (ASX:DOW) , among many more.
• So far this reporting season, we’ve seen 83 companies release their results, with 31 beating expectations, 32 in line with expectations and 20 missing expectations.
• Following their results yesterday, Bell Potter have upgraded their rating on TechnologyOne from a Hold to a buy, with a 12-month price target of $29 per share after the company reported their guidance for FY26.
• And finally ending on commodities news, crude oil prices have jumped 4 and a half percent to US$65 per barrel as investors reacted to talks in both the US – Iran tensions and Russia – Ukraine conflict ending without clear breakthroughs. The geopolitical uncertainty has also affected precious metals prices, with gold rebounding 2% to just under US$5000 per ounce, while silver has jumped 5% to US$77 per ounce.

Starting off overseas, it was a relatively quiet day for Wall St on its reopen from Monday’s public holiday, as all 3 of the major indexes advanced 0.1%.

What to watch today:

• Looking now at today, the ASX is set to extend on yesterday’s gains with the SPI futures indicating a 0.5% jump at the open of trade today.
• Pivoting to a reporting season update, NAB (ASX:NAB) reported a 30% jump in net profit to $2.21 billion, and a 16% jump in cash earnings to $2.02 billion for the quarter to December.
• Queensland based insurer Suncorp (ASX:SUN) saw a massive reduction in profit after a period of increased natural hazard events. November’s hailstorm in particular was costly, as claims drove Suncorp $453 million over allowance for natural disasters. Their cash earnings of $270 million represented around a third of last years, while the dividend has been cut from 63c per share to 17c per share.
• And look out for other companies reporting today, including Dexus (ASX:DXS), Santos (ASX:STO) and TechnologyOne (ASX:TNE).
• So far this reporting season, 69 companies have released their results, with 26 beating expectations, 26 in line with expectations, and 17 missing expectations.
• Bell Potter’s research team have maintained their buy rating on diversified industrial services group SRG Global (ASX:SRG), and increased their 12-month price target from $3 per share to $3.15 per share off the back of solid results released yesterday and an upgrade in guidance.
• And in commodities,
  • Crude oil is trading down a further 1% to US$62.25 per barrel, after it was announced that the US and Iran had reached a ‘general agreement’ on a potential nuclear deal that would pave the way towards a lift in sanctions on Iran, and reduced risk of war in the region.
  • In precious metals both gold and silver are trading down over 2%, with gold falling to US$4882 per ounce, and silver down to US$73.50 per ounce. The decline can be attributed to a number of factors, including a strengthening US dollar, reduced market liquidity due to the public holidays, and geopolitical developments reducing safe haven demand.