Good Evening,

Welcome to Equity Espresso’s Daily Recap. 

The Aussie market bounced back strong Tuesday after a lacklustre start to 2024, climbing by as much as 1.2% throughout the day before settling 0.9% or 69.0 pts higher at 7,520.50. The Technology (+2.05%) sector saw the most significant gains after the NASDAQ finished over 2% higher in the U.S. Wisetech (+2.06%), Xero (+3.01%), and NextDC (+1.97%) were some of the big movers on the day.

Health Care (+1.51%), Industrials (+1.38%) and Staples (+1.22%) were some of the other sectors to also end the day in green. Energy (-0.10%) was the only sector to finish in the red on our market, albeit marginally, as WTI crude futures held around US$71/bbl on Tuesday after losing more than 4% on Monday. The commodity has been weighed down by signs of weakening market fundamentals, highlighted by Saudi Arabia’s price cuts.

Today's key economic news was retail trade sales, which climbed by a seasonally adjusted 2.0% in November - beating market consensus of a 1.2% rise, bolstered by Black Friday sales. Some analysts did warn that the surprise result could have been driven by consumers pre-buying for Christmas. The December result will be one to watch.

In company news, Worley shares entered into a trading halt pending an announcement after reports of allegations of “illegality and bad faith” by an Ecuadorean tribunal. Alumina finished the day 1.1% higher after confirming plans to reduce production during the March quarter at its Kwinana refinery due to cost-cutting measures.

Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin rose above $US47,000 for the first time since April 2022, with U.S. regulators reportedly poised to approve exchange-traded funds (ETF) that invest directly in the digital asset for the first time.

Wall Street

U.S. markets bounced back on Monday, with a fall in treasury yields helping the NASDAQ (+2.20%) and S&P 500 (+1.41%) finish higher, registering the best-performing trading session of 2024. Nvidia shares were the big company story of the day, trading 6.4% higher to close at a record high of $522.53 after it announced the GeForce RTX 40 SUPER Series of graphics processors aimed at video gamers. The Dow Jones also finished higher but lagged the other indices, dragged down by Boeing shares, which closed 8.03% lower after a door panel blew out of a plane mid-flight last week.

Economic Data

• Australian retail sales rose by 2.0% during November, well above estimates of 1.2%, following a 0.4% decline in October.

• Australian dwelling approvals grew 1.6% to 14,529 units during November, beating market consent of a 2% fall after a 7.2% rise in October.

• The Swiss unemployment rate rose to an adjusted 2.3% in December - up from 2.1% in the prior months - the highest jobless rate since April 2022.

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Quick Singles

🪃 Local News

• NSW has successfully taken down a criminal organisation accused of attempting to smuggle native reptiles worth $1.2 million into Hong Kong. After conducting raids on the group, the police discovered hundreds of live lizards that were allegedly caught to be sold for profit.

• According to the AFR, KKR has hired Jefferies Australia to seek advice regarding a potential bid for Melbourne's EastLink toll road. The toll road generates around $300 million in annual earnings and has attracted local and offshore interest.

🌎️ Around The Globe

• ByteDance says it is speaking with multiple prospective buyers of its gaming assets, including the world's largest video games company, Tencent.

• Audacy, the second largest radio broadcaster in the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following declining advertising sales. Audacy owns over 200 radio stations, including LA’s KROQ and New York’s 1010 WINS.

• SpaceX is suing the National Labour Retention Board, arguing the agency is “unconstitutional.” This follows a complaint against SpaceX alleging the company illegally filed eight employees. 

• OpenAI is facing a lawsuit from two non-fiction authors, who claim the company the company “systematically pilfered” their work to train its AI models.

• The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered that 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft be inspected after a door plug blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight Friday.

• According to data from Moody’s, there is currently more empty office space in the U.S. than at any point since 1979, with the national office vacancy rate rising to 19.3% during the last quarter of 2023.

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A Little Extra

📉 Going Down?

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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.