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Australian shares were trading higher yesterday, supported by strong earnings reports.

US equities edged higher overnight, with both the blue-chip Dow Jones and the S&P500 closing at record highs.

This morning the ASX200 is set to rise 0.4% or 28 points, to 7,526 points.

What to watch today:

• Yesterday, consumer inflation expectations decreased to 3.3% in August, which was below expectations of 3.8%. Today, New Home Sales data for July will be released at 2pm AEST, expected to increase 13%.
• Baby Bunting (ASX:BBN) released their full year 2021 results this morning. Total sales increased 15.6% to $468.4 million. Statutory NPAT increased 76% to $17.5 million. The company also announced a fully franked final dividend of 8.3 cents per share, that’s a full year dividend of 14.1 cents, up 34.1%.
• Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) was one of the most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients yesterday. CBA fell yesterday after a week on an uptrend, and after hitting a record high on Monday. CBA is a Bell Potter BUY stock, while other brokers are bearish. CBA is a Macquarie and Morgan Stanley SELL stock. And Citi released a report yesterday, downgrading CBA to SELL.
• Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) was also one of the most traded stocks yesterday, after trading ex-dividend yesterday morning. RIO are paying shareholders fully franked dividends of 760.06 cents per share. RIO closed more than 1% lower yesterday. And overnight, the UK listed Rio Tinto dragged down mining stocks in Europe, falling 5.5%, while RIO’s US listed shares fell 1.7% in New York.
• The oil price fell 0.5% to US$68 a barrel following concerns of rising COVID-19 cases in China.
• The gold price has edged 0.1% higher and the iron ore price is trading 0.7% lower at US$167 a tonne.

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter have a BUY recommendation on Lycopodium (ASX:LYL), a provider of full lifecycle services to the Mineral Processing industry. Bell Potter have reduced their price target on LYL from $6.50 to $6.00, as ongoing COVID-19 restrictions increase operational difficulty.
• Bullish charting signals have been identified in Challenger Exploration (ASX:CEL), Deterra Royalties (ASX:DRR), and Corporate Travel Management (ASX:CTD), according to Trading Central.