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Welcome to Equity Espresso’s Daily Recap. 

A wave of red hit the market today, as the ASX 200 index sunk to a four-week low, ending the session down 81.5 pts. or 1.1% to 7,414.80. The fall followed a weak night of trade in Europe, with the U.S. market closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

All sectors finished lower today, with Utilities (-1.76%), Energy (-1.53%) and Materials (-1.52%) seeing the largest falls. A fall in commodity prices sent these sectors lower, with European gas futures also falling to five-month lows due to weaker amid and higher inventory levels. Iron Ore futures slipped 0.8% to US$126.50/t after dropping on Monday.

In company news, Data#3 (+1.45%) shares saw some green after the IT service provider said it expects to report NPBT for the first half of FY24 at between $30 million and $31 million. This is an upgrade from the $27million to $29million guided for in October.

Rio Tinto's primary division for iron ore has achieved its highest export volumes in five years. However, the company's fragile truce with the Mongolian government appears to be in jeopardy due to a new tax imposition related to its massive copper mine. Rio shipped 331.8 million tonnes of iron ore from Western Australia in 2023, with 86.25 million tonnes in the year's final three months.

Economic Data

• Australian Consumer Sentiment fell 1.3% to 81 in January, from 82.1 in December, as the index remained at a pessimistic level, which has now stretched for two years,

• Japanese Producer Prices showed no growth year-on-year during December, beating forecasts of a 0.3% drop after a 0.3% rise in November.

• U.K. regular pay rose 6.6% year-on-year in the three-month period to November 2023, below a 7.2% increase in the previous month.
  

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Quick Singles

🪃 Local News

• The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairwoman, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, is carefully considering potential litigation against a major supermarket chain for breaching consumer law. She has not ruled out the possibility of a court case being brought within the next 12 months. The competition regulator's decision comes in response to a recent announcement by the labour government, which has called for a review of industry codes and urged supermarkets to pass on savings from lower wholesale costs directly to consumers.

🌎️ Around The Globe

• BlackRock is buying Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for approximately $12.5 billion as the world’s largest asset manager expands its focus on infrastructure. GIP has over $100 billion in assets under management.

• Chinese automakers have been put on notice, with a European Commission set to inspect automakers such as BYD. The inspection is part of a probe investigating whether to impose tariffs to protect European Electric Vehicle (EV) makers.

• Elon Musk stated that he would feel uncomfortable growing the automaker to be a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics without having at least 25% voting control of the company.

• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is expected to report a 23% drop in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday after a strong performance in 2022 when the company was still riding high on pent-up post-pandemic demand.

• Vodafone has agreed to a 10-year partnership with Microsoft to bring generative AI, digital, enterprise, and cloud services to more than 300 million businesses and consumers across its European and African markets.

   

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A Little Extra

📉 Going Down?

Top-10 shorted stocks on the ASX - as of January 10

👨‍💼 Director Transactions

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

DISCLAIMER: None of the information provided in this newsletter should be constituted as financial advice. This newsletter is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be taken as investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Please do your research.