Good Evening,

Welcome to Equity Espresso’s Daily Recap. 

A busy day for some of the large caps stocks on the Aussie market, with the ASX 200 index falling 29.9 pts or 0.39% as CSL (-4.8%) lost around $7 billion in market cap after abandoning plans for regulatory approval of a proposed heart drug following weak results in a phase-three trial.

Five of the 11 sectors ended the day lower, with the Health Care (-3.2%) sector unsurprisingly seeing the largest fall after the CSL Phase 3 trial update. Cochlear (-0.3%) and Resmed (-1.4%). Energy (-1.0%) was the other sector that saw a significant fall, as Brent Crude futures fell below US$82/bbl today. Woodside Energy (-2.1%) and Yancoal (-1.2%) drove the sector lower.

The Technology (+1.02%) was the best performer on the day, continuing its recent positive run, with Wisetech (+0.45%), Xero (+1.46%) and NextDC (+0.49%) all finishing higher.

JB Hi-Fi (+7.1%) was a big mover today, following the lead of fellow retailers Nick Scali and Myer last week, who moved higher on trading updates. The company recorded another all-time high share price today despite reporting a 20% fall in NPAT to $264 million and a 2% fall in sales to $5.3 billion.

Beach Energy reported a drop in production and lowered its full-year guidance but posted higher profits in the first six months of FY24, which sent its share price up 3.3% to $1.71. Aurizon was another company to report half-year results, with its share price rising 3.2% after increasing earnings by 26% during the half.

Appen shareholders got some much-needed relief today, with shares bouncing 16% after the company said it would cut $US13.5 million of costs from its business, including closing its Toronto and Bellevue offices in North America.

Wall Street

Markets rose again on Friday, as the S&P 500 closed above the 5,000 mark for the first time, ending the session 0.57% higher to 5,026.61, while the Nasdaq rallied 1.25% to close at 15,990.66. The Dow Jones fell 54.64 points, or 0.14%, to settle at 38,671.69. All three major indices notched their fifth straight winning week and 14th positive week in 15.

Pinterest shares fell 9.45% after the company provided softer-than-expected guidance for its first-quarter revenue and posted fourth-quarter revenue that disappointed Wall Street but beat on earnings. Q4 revenue was $981 million vs. $991 million expected, while adjusted earnings were 53 cents per share vs. 51 cents expected.

Bitcoin miner CleanSpark surged 32.8% after posting better-than-expected first-quarter results. The company reported earnings of 14 cents per share, while analysts had expected a loss of 26 cents per share. Revenue came in at $73.8 million for the quarter, compared to expectations of $71 million.

Expedia stock plunged 17.8% after missing analysts’ expectations as it reported fourth-quarter bookings of $21.7 billion against expectations of $22 billion. In a surprise to the market, CEO Pete Kern resigned, with Ariane Gorin to take the top job. PepsiCo stock fell 3.6% after it missed fourth-quarter revenue, coming in at $27.85 billion, below the $28.4 billion expected, as borrowing costs and lower personal savings hurt consumer budgets.

Economic Data

• U.S. CPI was up 0.2% month-over-month in December 2023, below the 0.3% increase initially reported.

• Canada’s Unemployment Rate dropped to 5.7% in January from the 22-month high of 5.8% recorded in December.

Sponsor

Make Money By Investing
In The Future

Capitalise on emerging technologies from AI to Fintech, to EVs and more.

Money Mastery’s goal is simple, make money by investing in emerging technologies.

Sign up to Money Mastery today (one-click subscribe) ⬇️ 

Quick Singles

🌎️ Around The Globe

• Jeff Bezos sold 12 million shares, valued at around $2 billion, on Friday as the Amazon founder plans to sell 50 million shares.

• Tesla has temporarily cut the prices of some of its Model Y cars in the U.S. until the end of February, less than a month after cutting them in Germany.

• Google has announced a commitment of 25 million euros to support advancing artificial intelligence (AI) education among Europeans. The company has initiated an application process for non-profit organisations and social enterprises to assist those needing AI training.

• Diamondback Energy and Endeavor Energy Resources are close to finalising a $25 billion cash-and-stock deal that would create an oil and gas company valued at more than $50 billion, according to Reuters.

• Finnish airliner Finnair will start weighing some passengers at the gate as part of a trial program to improve plane weight estimates.

• Google has renamed its Bard chatbot to Gemini, releasing a dedicated Gemini app for Android.

• Huawei said its French financial prosecutors searched its office in France as part of a preliminary investigation.

Markets

ASX Company Movers

Commodity Prices

Bonds

Forex

ETF Data

Global Health Check

Recommendation

A Little Extra

📉 Going Down?

Top-10 shorted stocks on the ASX - as of February 6

🗂️ Broker Ratings

1. News Corp (NWS) - Upgrade to Outperform from Neutral (Macquarie)

2. Cochlear (COH) - Downgrade to Hold from Add (Morgans)

3. ikeGPS Group (IKE) - Upgrade to Buy from Hold (Bell Potter)

👨‍💼 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.