Gold Miners Shine as ASX Climbs

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Welcome to Equity Espresso’s Daily Recap. 

The ASX 200 index closed 86.2 pts. or 1.1% higher on Thursday, buoyed by the news overnight that the U.S. Federal Reserve still plans to make three rate cuts in 2024, the first of which is in June. Gold miners were some of the big winners on the boards as the precious metal's price reached an all-time high, crossing the US$2,200 mark. Northern Star (+2.31%), Evolution Mining (+5.15%), and Sandfire Resources (+2.00%) were all big movers on the day.

Nine sectors closed the day in the green, with Financials (+1.74%), Discretionary (+1.50%) and Real Estate (+1.33%) leading the march. All five big banks saw more than 1% gains, while Wesfarmers (+1.33%) and Goodman Group (+1.91%) also ended the day higher.

In company news, Washington H. Soul Pattinson (+0.4%) rose slightly after it reported an 11% jump in its interim dividend for the six months ending January. While the company’s Net Asset Value rose 10.0% to $11.5 billion, Statutory Profit fell by 33.2% to $302.5 million due to weaker coal prices and lower property valuations. Webjet (+9.17%) shares hit a 52-week high after showcasing its WebBeds business at a Strategy Day today, where it said it would achieve a total transaction value (TTV) of $4 billion in FY24 and then $5 billion in FY25.

Australian Strategic Minerals (+20.1%) surged after it flagged a potential $US600 million debt funding commitment from the U.S. government. Brickworks (-3.1%) shares fell after it posted a statutory half-year loss of $52 million and impaired property valuations by $233 million.

Wall Street

Wall Street's leading indices finished higher on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve eased concerns by keeping the cash rate unchanged while reinforcing expectations that there could be as many as three rate cuts this year.

The NASDAQ (+1.25%) was the best-performing index on the day, with Broadcom (+3.07%) and Tesla (+2.53%) two of the bigger movers. Tesla confirmed that it would raise the prices of Model Y vehicles from April 1. The S&P 500 (+0.89%) and Dow Jones (+1.03%) also showed strong gains.

In other company news, data centre operator Equinix (-2.33%) shares dipped after Hindenburg Research revealed it had opened a short position against the company. The investment and research firm raised concerns about an accounting treatment that it says artificially boosts Equinix’s Adjusted Funds From Operations (AFFO).

Chipotle shares hit an all-time high after the Mexican restaurant announced a 50-to-1 stock split, which, if approved by shareholders, will take effect in June. The Mexican restaurant’s shares closed at $2,895.00 or $57.50 post the stock-spilt.

Economic Data

• Australia’s Unemployment Rate fell to 3.7% in February, the lowest mark since September 2023, falling from 4.1% in January and below market forecasts of 4.0%. The number of unemployed individuals dropped by 52,000 to 548,300.

• The Federal Reserve left the fed funds rate steady at a 23-year high of 5.25%-5.5% for a fifth consecutive meeting on Wednesday, which was in line with market expectations. The Federal Reserve reaffirmed its’ previous stance at the December quarterly of three rate cuts this year.

• The Japanese Manufacturing PMI increased to 48.2 in March, marking the 10th consecutive mark of contraction in the factory sector. The read was up from 47.2 in February.

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Quick Singles

🌎️ Around The Globe

• Reddit has priced its Initial Public Offering (IPO) at the high end of its targeted range of $31 to $34, raising $748 million after selling 22 million shares, which will value the company at around $6.4 billion when it hits the market.

• Nvidia revealed its latest chip, the Blackwell B200, which it says is 30x faster at tasks like serving up answers from chatbots while using 25x less power.

• Nordstrom stock closed 9.4% higher on Tuesday after Reuters reported that the company is working with investment banking companies to explore the possibility of taking Nordstrom private.

• Evergrande and its founder, Hui Ka Yan, have been accused of inflating revenues by US$78 billion in the two years before the property giant defaulted on its debt.

• Microsoft has hired Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and Inflection AI CEO, to run its consumer artificial intelligence division. Suleyman will lead all consumer AI products and research for Copilot, Bing, and Edge.

• OpenAI plans to launch GPT-5 around mid-year, which aims to address previous performance issues and significantly improve GPT-4. GPT-5 is described as "materially better" by those who have seen demos, including enhancements and new capabilities like the ability to call AI agents for autonomous tasks.

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A Little Extra

📉 Going Down?

Top-10 shorted stocks on the ASX - as of March 15

📂 Broker Ratings

1. Bapcor (BAP) - Upgrade to Equal-weight from Underweight (Morgan Stanley)

2. Evolution Mining (EVN) - Upgrade to Overweight from Equal-weight (Morgan Stanley)

3. Woolworths Group (WOW) - Upgrade to Outperform from Neutral (Macquarie)

👨‍💼 Director Transactions

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

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