Good Evening,

Welcome to Equity Espresso’s Daily Recap.

The Aussie market made it three positive days on the trot, with mining stocks helping push the index higher as one of eight sectors to finish in the green. The ASX 200 index finished Wednesday session 0.31% or 24.3 pts. higher to 7,848.50.

Real Estate (+1.18%) and Health Care (+1.03%) were the sector leaders on the ASX today, with market heavyweights Goodman Group (+1.63%), Scentre Group (+1.21%), CSL (+1.18%) and Resmed (+2.18%) all finishing the day higher.

The price of Iron Ore jumped higher again on Wednesday, climbing by 3.3% to trade at around US$109.00/t, pushing BHP Group (+0.73%), Fortescue (+1.90%), and Rio Tinto (+1.91%) higher. Meanwhile, gold prices hit another record high of US$2,360/oz, although only De Grey Mining (+0.75%) and Zimplants (+0.70%) were the beneficiaries, with many other gold miners down.

The technology sector was the worst performer, primarily due to falls from Wisetech Global (-2.96%) and Xero (-1.20%).

The big company news today came from call recording software company Dubber. There was too much to condense into one paragraph, so instead, you get this juicy story in bullet point form:

• Dubber has sacked chief executive Steve McGovern following an internal investigation into the disappearance of $30 million of company money.

• The funds were supposed to have been held by a third-party trustee in a term deposit, which may have been allegedly misused by either or both Mr McGovern and the trustee.

• Based on an investigation to date, it’s likely that Mr McGovern and the trustee were involved in the unauthorised use of those funds.

• ASIC has secured travel restraint orders against both Mr McGovern and the trustee, Mr Madafferi.

• Dubber is still trying to find approximately $26.6 million of the $30 million missing funds after recovering around $3.4 million.

• The company’s shares remain in a trading halt at $0.22.

• Dubber is seeking to raise $24 million in a fully underwritten capital raise at $0.05 per share, a 77% discount to its last closing price.

Wall Street

The Nasdaq (+0.32%) and S&P 500 (+0.14%) posted modest gains during Tuesday’s session, ahead of tomorrow’s major CPI read. The Dow Jones (-0.02%) closed lower, weighed down by financial stocks as investors brace for major U.S. banks to kick off earnings reporting season on Friday.

Nine of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500 closed higher, with Real Estate (+1.29%) enjoying the largest percentage gains, while Financials (-0.50%) were the biggest laggards.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) print for March is at the top of most investors' minds. Analysts are forecasting an annualised growth of 3.4%, up from a 3.2% rise in February. A higher-than-expected inflation read could add further support that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer, delaying the start of this rate cycle.

Moderna (+6.19%) was one of the big movers, with the drugmaker's individualised cancer vaccine developed with Merck showing promise in an early-stage trial.

S&P500 Sector Performance

Economic Data

• New Zealand’s Reserve Bank held its cash rate at 5.5% during its April policy meeting, extending the pause on rate hikes to six straight months.

• Japenese Produce Prices rose by 0.8% year-on-year in March-24, which was in line with expectations, while also making it the highest reading since October last year.

Sponsor

Get Ahead in Crypto:
Daily Web 3 Insights from RAREMINTS

Bear markets are the best time to find your next 10x crypto opportunity.

Subscribe to RAREMINTS to get daily Web 3 insights straight to your inbox and stay ahead of the curve for Free.

Join 25,000+ investors/builders from Binance, KuCoin, Animoca Brands and more👇 (one-click signup)

Get Your Business Featured Here

Take a look at our sponsorship packages to feature your business in Equity Espresso’s newsletter.

Quick Singles

🌎️ Around The Globe

• The U.S. government plans to offer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) $11.6 billion in loans and grants to build a third factory in Phoenix, Arizona, to boost the country's chipmaking capabilities. As part of the deal, TSMC will also increase its U.S. investments from $40 billion to $65 billion.

• Spirit Airlines is deferring deliveries of new Airbus planes by five years to between 2030 and 2031. It plans to furlough 260 pilots in an effort to boost liquidity.

• Pakistan’s new finance minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, has taken up the position with no pay, leaving behind a banking career at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

• Blackstone is acquiring Apartment Income REIT, an apartment landlord, for around $10 billion. The asset manager plans to invest over $400 million to maintain and bolster the company’s apartment portfolio.

• Meta will reportedly release two smaller versions of its planned major language model, which will include both text generation and multimodal capabilities, in an effort to compete with Open AI’s GPT-4.

• Tesco has forecast a further increase in profit in its new financial year, as strong demand and new customers helped it to post an 11% jump in 2023/24.

• A months-long wage dispute at Deutsche Bank's Postbank arm looks set to continue, with additional strikes planned ahead of a fourth round of talks next week. Employees are demanding a 15.5% pay raise.

Markets

ASX Company Movers

Commodity Prices

Bonds

Forex

ETF Watch

Global Health Check

Newsletter Recommendation

A Little Extra

📉 Going Down?

Top-10 shorted stocks on the ASX - as of April 4

📂 Broker Ratings

1. Whitehaven Coal (WHC) - Upgrade to Buy from Neutral (UBS)
   

👨‍💼 Director Transactions

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

The Last Word

How are we doing?

We always love hearing from our readers and are constantly seeking feedback. How are we doing with Equity Espresso? Is there anything you’d like to see more of or less of? Which aspects of the newsletter do you enjoy the most?

Hit reply and say hello - or leave us feedback in the poll below:

If you enjoyed this newsletter, forward this e-mail to a friend.

If you’re that friend, subscribe here.

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 financial decisions. We strongly recommend conducting your own research before making any investment decisions.