Tuesday's Tech Trauma as Wall Street Recession Fears Grow

Good Evening,

Welcome to Equity Espresso’s Market Recap.

Markets took another beating in early trade today after Monday's rare positive session. The S&P/ASX200 index mounted a late afternoon rally but remained below the 8,000 mark, finishing 72.2 pts or 0.91% lower at 7,890.10. Wall Street suffered a sharp decline, with the NASDAQ plunging 4.00% - its largest one-day fall since September 2022—amid growing fears of a U.S. recession.

Our Technology (-3.95%) sector played a mindless game of follow the NASDAQ, falling by a similar percentage amount, with Technology One (-5.63%), Life 360 (-8.57%) and Xero (-5.12%) seeing some of the sharpest falls.

Defensive sectors continue to be the place to be in this mini-bear market, with Utilities (+1.38%) posting strong gains led by rises from Origin Energy (+1.56%) and APA Group (+1.75%). The Utilities sector stands alone as the only positive performer in March.

ASX Company News

• Guzman y Gomez (-2.52%) shares declined following the release of 15.4 million shares from escrow, triggered after the company's stock price traded above $26.40 for 10 consecutive days starting February 21, 2025.

• Nickel Industries (-18.21%) sharp fall caught the eye of the ASX, who issued a please explain. Nickel Industries attributed its sharp decline to several factors, including a major block trade where investor PT Harum Energy TBK had sold approximately 178.5 million shares—representing about 4.2% of the company's total shares.

• PolyNovo (-7.57%) shares slumped after CEO Swami Raote stepped down effective immediately, though his employment officially ends June 10, 2025. Following failed confidential discussions, the board determined that "new leadership is required to continue the Company's growth."

• Ramelius Resources (-16.85%) shares fell after the company released an updated mine plan for Mt Magnet. The plan features a 17-year, 2.1 million-ounce production outlook that came in below market expectations, with higher-than-anticipated capital expenditures.

• Suncorp (-0.78%) has reported approximately 7,800 claims resulting from Tropical Cyclone Alfred's impact on southeast Queensland and northern NSW. Around 7,200 were home-related claims, with most falling within the federal Cyclone Reinsurance Pool coverage period that ended on March 10.

Wall Street

Wall Street suffered a brutal sell-off Monday, with the Nasdaq (-4.00%) plunging in its steepest single-day drop since September 2022, while the S&P 500 tumbled 2.70% in its worst session of the year. The Dow Jones wasn't spared, falling 2.08% as markets reacted to ongoing tariff uncertainties.

Technology (-4.34%) stocks bore the brunt of the selling pressure, leading the S&P 500 decliners. Other hard-hit sectors included Consumer Discretionary (-3.90%), Communication Services (-3.54%), and Financials (-2.29%)—with the latter completely erasing all of its year-to-date gains during Monday's retreat. The only relatively bright spot came from defensive Utilities (+1.04%), which outperformed.

Robinhood (-19.79%) shares sank after financial regulator Finra ordered the company to pay $3.75 million in customer restitution, plus $26 million in fines against Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities.

S&P 500 Sector Performance

Economic Data

• Australia's NAB Business Confidence Index tumbled to -1 in February 2025 from an upwardly revised 5 in the prior month, marking the first negative reading of the year as sentiment fell.

• Australia's Consumer Sentiment Index rose 4% in March, reaching 95.9 from 92.2 in February—its highest level in three years.

• Canada’s employment rose by 1,100 in February 2025, continuing a stable trend. This follows a 57,000 rise in January and missed market expectations of 20,000.

• Japan's GDP grew by 0.6% QoQ in Q4 2024, below the flash estimate of 0.7% but higher than the 0.4% expansion in Q3, marking the third consecutive quarter of growth.

• U.S. Consumer Inflation expectations for the year ahead rose for the first time in four months, edging up to 3.1% in February 2025 from 3% in the previous three months,

• The U.S. economy added 151K jobs in February 2025, up from a downwardly revised 125K in January and compared to forecasts of 160K.

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Quick Singles

🌎️ Around The Globe

• Apple's A.I. division faces further setbacks as the company announced indefinite delays to its Siri improvements. Features unveiled last June—including Siri's ability to access personal information for answering queries and exercise more precise app control—have been postponed until sometime in "the coming year."

• BlackRock-backed investors have agreed to acquire a majority stake in the Hong Kong-based operator of Panama Canal ports for $22.8 billion. The deal includes dozens of ports in other countries and comes amid White House pressure to transfer control of these strategic facilities from Chinese to American hands.

• President Trump hosted a historic cryptocurrency summit at the White House on Friday, welcoming industry leaders to discuss plans for a government-owned digital asset stockpile.

• Discord's leadership has been meeting with investment bankers to discuss potential IPO options, with the possibility of going public as early as this year.

• Rocket Companies will acquire real estate platform Redfin in an all-stock deal valuing the latter at $1.75 billion.

• The US. Justice Department has dropped demands for Google to divest from A.I. companies but still insists the tech giant sell its Chrome browser to address search monopoly concerns.

Markets

ASX Company Movers

Commodity Prices

Bonds

Forex

Global Health Check

ETF Prices

🔍️ ETF Watch

Australian Index

Australian Sectors

Global Indices & Sectors

Global Strategy

Property & Infrastructure

Fixed Income

Mixed Assets

Geared

*1-year, 3-year and 5-year returns are calculated as of January 31, 2025.

A Little Extra

👇️ Short Data

Top 10 shorted stocks on the ASX - as of March 5

💠 The Insiders

Director buying and selling. On-market and Off-Market trades only.
Net Buy/Sell Positions from February 27 - March 7

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DISCLAIMER: Please note that the information provided in this newsletter is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. It is not intended to encourage you to buy/sell assets or make economic decisions. We strongly recommend conducting your research before making any investment.