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Welcome to Equity Espresso’s Daily Recap.

The Aussie market rose on Tuesday despite a weak lead on Wall Street overnight. A rally in the mining sector helped lift the ASX 200 index higher by 0.45% or 35.1 pts. to 7,821.20.

Materials (+1.48%) was the best performer of the seven sectors to finish the day in the green, thanks to a 3% lift in the Iron Ore futures price to US$105.50. BHP Group (+1.99%), Fortescue (+1.61%) and Rio Tinto (+2.96%) all benefited from a bump in the Iron Ore price.

Copper and Silver miners also saw gains as both commodities continue to trade at 12-month highs. IGO (+4.24%), Zimplants (+7.45%), and Chalice Mining (+8.70%) were some of the best-performing copper producers. Silver broke through the US$28.00 mark on Monday to trade at a three-year high, with Adriatic Metals (+2.94%) and Kingsgate (+2.53%) just some of the beneficiaries.

Utilities (+0.99%) and Discretionary (+0.67%) were the next best performers, while Real Estate (-0.97%) and Health Care (-0.64%) were the biggest laggards.

In company news, Santos' (-2.04%) $15 billion LNG project in Papua New Guinea faced further delays, causing a dip in its share price. The final investment decision is now expected next year. Ansell (+6.45%) shareholders reacted positively to yesterday’s news that it is set to acquire Kimberly-Clark Corporation’s PPE business for US$640 million, despite the need to raise over $400 million in capital from shareholders.

Predictive Discovery (+6.52%) shares lifted after reporting “excellent” results from its ongoing regional exploration drilling campaign at the Bankan Gold Project in Guinea. The highlights included high-grade gold intercepts at multiple target areas, demonstrating the project's potential to host additional commercial gold deposits.

Wall Street

It was a mixed and choppy session on Wall Street, with the leading indices essentially unchanged at the close on Monday ahead of a vital inflation data read to be released Wednesday and the start of the quarterly earnings season. Whilst the NASDAQ (+0.03%) gained on the day, the S&P 500 (-0.04%) and Dow Jones (-0.03%) ended the day lower.

The continued strength in the economy has forced investors to reassess the timing and magnitude of rate cuts. Markets are currently pricing in around 60 basis points of rate cuts this year, compared to 150 basis points expected at the start of the year. According to data from CME, the prospect of a first 25 basis point cut in June is 49%, down from 57% a week ago.

Year-on-year headline CPI is expected to rise to 3.4% from 3.2% in February, still above the Federal Reserves target of 2.0%.

Tesla (+4.90%) stock rebounded after CEO Elon Musk said late Friday that it will unveil its long-awaited robotaxi design on August 8. GE Vernova (+5.92%), the recently spun-out Energy company from General Electric, rose after JP Morgan upgraded the company to an overweight rating.

S&P500 Sector Performance

Economic Data

• The Australian Consumer Sentiment index fell by 2.4% to 52.4 pts. during April, falling for the second consecutive month. The index has held below 100 for over two years, the longest since the early-1990s recession.

• Australian Business Confidence index was up to 1 in March from 0 in the prior month.

• Netherlands’ Annual inflation was 3.1% in March 2024, up from 2.8% in February due to a lift in transport and housing/utilities.

• Japan’s Consumer confidence index increased to 39.5 in March, up from 39.0 in February, the country’s highest reading since April 2019

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Quick Singles

🌎️ Around The Globe

• Retail giant Target is rolling out three new membership options under its Target Circle loyalty program, including same-day delivery and other perks.

• Johnson & Johnson is set to acquire Shockwave Medical in a deal valued at $13.1 billion or $335 per share. Shockwave is a medical device provider for the treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

• Teladoc Health announced the sudden departure of CEO Jason Gorevic last Friday after 15 years at the helm. Mala Murthy, the current CFO, has been appointed acting CEO while the company looks for a replacement.

• Snapchat will change its Solar System feature, which shows users which friends they interact with the most after parents complained it posed mental health risks to teens by ranking friends.

• Walmart has agreed to pay $45 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that it overcharged customers by inflating the weight of grocery items. The company denies any wrongdoing.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former Apple designer Jony Ive are reportedly in talks to raise up to $1 billion from investors for their secretive AI-powered personal device company.

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 3

📂 Broker Ratings

1. Australian Finance Group (AFG) - Downgrade to Sell from Neutral (Citi)

2. Ansell (ANN) - Upgrade to Outperform from Neutral (Macquarie)

3. Elders (ELD) - Upgrade to Buy from Neutral (Citi)

4. Elders (ELD) - Upgrade to Add from Hold (Morgans)

5. Liberty Financial (LFG) - Upgrade to Buy from Neutral (Citi)
   

👨‍💼 Director Transactions

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

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