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Welcome to Equity Espresso’s Daily Recap.

The ASX 200 index took a sharp dip on Wednesday, with interest-rate-sensitive sectors feeling the brunt of the sell-off as investors taper interest rate cut expectations. The main Aussie index fell by 105.4 pts. or 1.34% to close at 7,782.50.

Nine sectors ended the day in red, with Technology (-3.94%) and Real Estate (-3.22%) seeing the largest falls, although both sectors have had starts to 2024 before today. Wisetech Global (-5.02%), Xero (-5.69%) and NextDC (-3.23%) all saw large falls, while Goodman Group (-2.64%) and Scentre Group (-3.55%) saw similar price drops in the REITS sector.

The Utilities (+0.16%) and Energy (+0.06%) sectors were the only places to find cover, as Brent Crude briefly traded over US$89.00/bbl to hit a five-month high. The price of gold continues to push higher, currenlty trading at above US$2,270.

In company news, Ramelius Resources (+5.25%) reported record gold production of 86,928/oz during the March quarter—well above guidance of between 70,000 and 77,500/oz. The gold miner expects H2 FY24 production to be between 140,000 and 155,000/oz at an AISC of $1,700 - 1,800/oz. Westgold Resources (-14.8%) shares fell after reporting that it had produced 52,100/oz of gold during Q3, with production impacted by an operational pause at its Paddy Flat mine in Meekatharra. Westgold revised down its production guidance to 220,000 – 230,000/oz at an AISC of $2,100 – 2,300/oz. And finally, Mighty Craft (+25.0%) shares rose after announcing it sold its Mismatch Brewing and the 78 Degrees distillery business for $7.2 million to help pay down debt.

Wall Street

U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday, continuing the negative start to Q2 as investors consider the possibility of delayed rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones (-1.00%) had the largest fall of the three main indices, followed by the NASDAQ (-0.95%) and the S&P 500 (-0.72%).

Eight of the 11 major sectors on the S&P500 fell, with the Health Care (-1.62%) and Consumer Discretionary (-1.28%) sectors dropping the most. Energy (+1.37%) stocks gained the most as oil prices hit a five-month high.

Tesla (-4.9%) was one of the bigger drags on the market, reporting the first year-on-year decline in vehicle deliveries in almost four years in Q1. Tesla delivered 386,810 vehicles during the quarter, down 9% from the 422,875 in Q1-2023. PVH (-22.2%) - the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger shares tumbled after forecasting that its revenue would fall by between 5% and 7% in the coming fiscal year.

S&P500 Sector Performance

Economic Data

• U.S. Job Openings rose by 8,000 to 8.756 million during February, above market expectations of 8.75 million. The largest increase came in the finance and insurance (+126,000) sector.

• China Services PMI rose for the first time in three months to 52.7 during March, up from 52.5 in February, which was in line with market estimates.

• Turkey’s Annual Inflation jumped to 68.50% in March, up from 67.07% in the previous month, but was slightly below forecasts of 69.10%

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Quick Singles

🌎️ Around The Globe

• Endeavour Group Holdings is set to be acquired by private equity company Silver Lake in a deal valued at $13 billion or $27.50 per share. 

• Liberty Media, owner of Formula One, has announced a €4.2 billion takeover of Moto GP’s parent company, Dorna. The deal will see Liberty Media acquiring approximately 86% of Dorna, with Dorna management retaining the other 14% of its equity.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman no longer owns or controls any part of the OpenAI Startup Fund, the company’s venture capital arm.

• Microsoft will unbundle Teams and Office globally following pressure from European regulators as it tries to avoid antitrust fines.

• Google has agreed to destroy or de-identify billions of records of browsing data collected when users were using “Incognito mode”.

• United Parcel Service (UPS) will become the primary air cargo provider of the United States Postal Service (USPS), replacing FedEx, which held the job for over 20 years.

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 March 26

📂 Broker Ratings

1. Gold Road Resources (GOR) - Downgrade to Neutral from Outperform (Macquarie)

👨‍💼 Director Transactions

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

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