Good Evening,

Welcome to Equity Espresso’s Daily Market Recap.

The Aussie market bounced back on Monday, regaining some ground after Friday's sharp sell-off. The ASX 200 index added 61.5 pts. climbing by 0.81% to close at 7,637.40. The local market followed a bumper session on Wall Street on Friday, with earnings from Google and Microsoft well received by markets. More on that later in the recap.

There was green everywhere on the boards, as all 11 major sectors finished higher, led by interest-rate-sensitive sectors Real Estate (+1.69%) and Technology (+1.68%). In the REIT sector, Goodman Group (+1.23%), Scentre Group (+1.61%) and Stockland (+2.31%) all made gains, as did technology leaders Wisetech Global (+1.90%) and Xero (+1.18%).

The Energy (+0.01%) sector was the worst performer, but still managed to eke out a gain despite Crude Oil futures falling by almost 1% on Monday to trade at US$82.90. Gold prices also dipped following its recent rally, currently trading at US$2,329.80.

A busy day of company news:

• Star Entertainment Group (+6.4%) shares received a much-needed boost after chairman David Foster was removed from the role and replaced by director Anne Ward.

• Perpetual (+3.09%) jumped after it confirmed speculation in the AFR that it had entered into exclusive talks with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. about the potential acquisition of Perpetual’s Corporate Trust and Wealth Management businesses.

• Boss Energy (+9.1%) performed best on the ASX 200 after reporting its March quarterly cash flow and activities report. The Uranium company produced its first drum of the commodity during the quarter. It plans to increase the production rate and mine life at its Honeymoon Uranium project in South Australia. Fellow Uranium companies Paladin Energy (+3.57) and Deep Yellow (+7.93%) also saw significant gains today.

• Megaport (-1.3%) shares dipped despite upgrading its FY24 EBITDA guidance to between $56 million and $58 million, from $51 million to $57 million.

• TPG Telecom's (+5.3%) shares rose after it signed a deal with Optus to expand its 4G and 5G mobile networks.

Wall Street

U.S. stocks rallied higher on Friday, with a rally in megacap growths led by quarterly results from Alphabet (+9.97%) and Microsoft (+1.82%) were well received, sending their respective share prices higher. The NASDAQ (+2.03%) was the big mover, with the S&P 500 (+1.02%) and Dow Jones (+0.40%) trailing.

Six out of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors finished higher, led by gains in Communication Services (+4.70%), Technology (+1.85%) and Consumer Discretionary (+1.32%) stocks.

Alphabet's (+9.97%) stock jumped, crossing $2 trillion in market cap after it announced its first-ever dividend of $0.20 per share and a $70 billion stock buyback program. It also announced better-than-expected first-quarter results, reporting earnings of $1.89 per share, beating the estimated $1.51 in earnings per share.

Microsoft stock rose after reporting third-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations. Earnings per share were $2.94, beating estimates of $2.82. Revenue was $61.86 billion during the quarter, growing 17% YoY and beating expectations of $60.80 billion. Microsoft guided for revenue of $64 billion in the upcoming quarter, slightly below expectations of $64.5 billion.

S&P500 Sector Performance

Economic Data

• U.S. Consumer Sentiment was revised lower to 77.2 in April from initial estimates of 77.9 and was lower than March’s reading of 79.4.

• U.S. Personal Spending increased by 0.8% during March from the previous month, in line with February’s reading and surpassing market expectations of a 0.8% growth.

Outlook

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Quick Singles

🌎️ Around The Globe

• Apple is in talks with OpenAI and Google to incorporate their AI technology into the iPhone's upcoming features, aiming to debut new generative AI functionalities at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

• Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook co-founder and Asana CEO says that Tesla is an Enron-level fraud because it presents data in “fraudulent ways” and has committed consumer fraud on a massive scale by lying about full self-driving ranges.

• Honda plans to invest $11 billion in Canada to create a “comprehensive EV value chain” to support the production of all-electric and fuel-cell vehicles.

• U.S. health conglomerate Kaiser has had to notify millions of current and former patients after sharing their information with third-party advertisers, including Google, Microsoft, and X.

• L3Harris has cut 5% of its workforce to streamline its business and save costs. The U.S. defence contractor said it faces headwinds from supply chain and labour disruptions.

• The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to restore Net Neutrality, which classifies the Internet as a public utility. The rules require broadband companies to treat all data equally without favouring or charging more for different websites.

• Tesla has secured a deal with Chinese technology giant Baidu, giving the U.S.-based EV maker access to Baidu’s mapping license for data collection on China's public roads.

• ByteDance, owner of TikTok, says it has no plans to sell the U.S. arm of its company and plans to fight the recently passed legislation in U.S. courts.

Markets

ASX Company Movers

Commodity Prices

Bonds

Forex

ETF Watch

Global Health Check

A Little Extra

📉 Going Down?

Top-10 shorted stocks on the ASX - as of April 22

📂 Broker Ratings

1.  Regis Resources (RRL) - Downgrade to Sell from Neutral (UBS)
   

👨‍💼 Director Transactions

What are the insiders doing? (On-market trade only)

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