February reporting season is upon us. By the end of the month, almost 180 ASX-listed companies we cover will have opened their books. For investors, this is an opportunity to see how your business is performing and assess how management is allocating your capital.

As of Wednesday, 12 February, 24 companies under coverage have reported. We’ve made 13 fair value upgrades, averaging 7%, and maintained fair value for the rest. We’re yet to downgrade a stock. An encouraging start, but it’s very early days with much to come.

In this edition of Your Money Weekly, our equity analysts reveal the big themes they expect in the weeks ahead. Take the basic materials sector, for example. Here, rising gold prices—driven by geopolitical uncertainties, a cautious US fiscal outlook, and robust ETF inflows— are expected to bolster earnings for Australian gold miners. Meanwhile, softer demand in China has driven iron ore prices down roughly 16% on last year, which could weigh on the earnings of BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue.

For each sector, we’ll also call out the company result we’re most interested in and discuss why it matters.

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