1. The number of properties sold at auction has increased again, with a preliminary auction clearance rate in 80.3% in Sydney and 79.2% in Melbourne according to CoreLogic. The national average is at 78.6% from 1,555 total auctions.

2. The gap between the financial comfort of metropolitan and regional Australians has widened according to ME Bank's latest Household Financial Comfort Report. Metropolitan households ranked their financial comfort at 5.76 out of 10 in the second half of 2019, 3% higher than the previous report and compared to a 4% drop to 5.08 for regional households. "The sharp fall in financial comfort in regional areas is likely a result of ongoing drought and recent bushfire catastrophes, which have significantly lowered already low levels of financial comfort," said ME Bank's consulting economist Jeff Oughton.

3. $6 billion could be wiped from Australia's GDP following a predicted 30% drop in outbound travel from China in 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak UBS economist George Tharenou said. "Given Australian quarter-to-quarter GDP has been rising by only $2.5bn… we now think Q1 GDP growth is likely to be negative, even with arguably still optim­istic assumptions," Tharenou said as quoted by The Australian.

4. As the third week of reporting season kicks off, Altium, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank, Brambles and QBE Insurance are among the companies delivering their results today.

5. The Dow Jones ended the week up 295.57 points or 1.02% on the previous week to 29,276.82, while the S&P 500 was up 52.45 points or 1.58% for the week to 3,380.16 and the Nasdaq gained 210.67 points or 2.21% to 9,731.18. Markets in the US will be closed on Monday for Presidents' Day.