1. Domain is predicting an 8% gain in house prices across the capital cities in 2020, with Sydney leading the pack with a forecast rise of 10%. House prices in Melbourne and Brisbane are set to rise 8%, while unit prices in the capital cities are expected to increase by 6%.

2. The Commonwealth Bank has beaten expectations with a 4.3% drop in cash profit to $4.47 billion for the first half of the financial year. "In an environment characterised by low interest rates and relatively low credit growth, our banking businesses performed well, leading to strong volume growth in home lending and deposits," CEO Matt Comyn said.

3. Along with CBA, the companies reporting their earnings today include CSL, Insurance Australia Group, James Hardie Industries, Computershare and Evolution Mining.

4. The death toll from the coronavirus has risen above 1,000 with 43,000 confirmed cases as the World Health Organisation warned that a vaccine could be 18 months away. "If the world doesn't want to wake up and consider this enemy virus as public enemy number 1, I don't think we will learn from our lessons," said director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

5. There were minor gains for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq overnight, which rose 5.66 points or 0.17% to 3,357.75 and 10.55 points or 0.11% to 9,638.94 points, respectively. The Dow Jones ended down just 0.48 points to 29,276.34.