Our market is expected to tread water on the last day of the month on mixed offshore leads and as the reporting season winds down.
Don't be fooled by the calm. Bull or bear, all experts can agree on one thing – the market is going to stay volatile for a while yet.
Not that you can tell from the futures market, which is pointing to a flat start to trade today for the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO), although we are likely to see some strong gains among resource stocks as the oil price surged again and iron ore recorded its best gain since August 3.
The West Texas Intermediate oil price jumped 6.3% to $US45.22 a barrel as air raids in Yemen and optimism about the health of the US economy triggered a bout of short-covering, where traders are forced to buy back contracts on the commodity after borrowing the security to sell on market to profit from falling prices.
Iron ore also rallied with a robust 3.9% advance to $US56.04, according to the Metal Bulletin.
You can expect a positive response from Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL) and BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP), but the jump in commodity prices is particularly good news for small cap energy company Tap Oil Limited (ASX: TAP) and struggling iron ore producer Atlas Iron Limited (ASX: AGO) as they report their profit results today.
They won't be alone in rushing out their earnings report card on the last day of the reporting season. Newly listed retirement accommodation provider Gateway Lifestyle Group (ASX: GTY) and embattled vocational training provider Vocation Ltd (ASX: VET) are also expected to announce their full year results.
There's plenty happening outside of profit announcements to keep investors on their toes too. Mining contractor Bradken Limited (ASX: BKN) will be in the spotlight after the Australian Financial Review reported that CHAMP Private Equity and Sigdo Koppers will walk away from making a merger or takeover offer for the company.
The utilities sector will also be in focus with Bloomberg reporting that Spark Infrastructure Group (ASX: SKI) will make an indicative bid for New South Wales government-owned electricity transmission network TransGrid, and that it won't face competition from AusNet Services (ASX: AST) as the latter has pulled out of the bidding process.
Supermarket giant Woolworths Limited (ASX: WOW) suffered a credit rating cut with Moody's downgrading its debt by one notch to Baa1 – a move that is likely to make company borrowings more expensive.
Finally, rubber protection products company Ansell Limited (ASX: ANN) announced that it plans to buy back $US100 million worth of its shares on-market over the next 12 months. The buyback represents around 6-7 million shares at its current share price and exchange rate, and will start no earlier than September 15.
