Latest stock market news videos & Morning Bell

State and Federal Governments are divided over reopening the Australian economy with the World Health Organisation warning the pandemic is accelerating. This explains why the Aussie share market futures are suggesting a 1.3% fall at the open.

Today, investors will be watching:

• BHP (ASX:BHP) & Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) following the coal price gain of 1.6%; and New Century Resources (ASX:NCZ) following the 1.5% uptick in zinc.
• The Federal Government is set to ramp up its spending on cyber security following an attempted hack into Australian networks. You could think about companies that could benefit or the ETF (ASX:HACK) which has already gained 14% this year.
• Metcash (ASX:MTS) full year results were announced. Food, liquor & hardware sales up in FY21 first seven weeks.
• Transurban Group (ASX:TCL) Q42020 sales are out. Transurban announced a reduced distribution of $0.16 per share for the next six months through June.
• Harvey Norman (ASX:HVN) goes ex-dividend today.
• The RBA Governor Phillip Low will be giving a speech at 10am.

Local trading ideas:

• UBS upgraded Adairs’ (ASX:ADH) earnings per share following Adairs’ sales guidance levels beating their forecasts. UBS gives Adairs a price target of $2.55.
• UBS upgraded Sigma Healthcare (ASX:SIG) price target by 15% to $0.61.
• Bell Potter upgraded AMA’s (ASX:AMA) price target to $0.85 after AMA performed better in terms of profitability and cash generation than management and market expectations.