Lunch Wrap: ASX feeling Valentine’s Day love but Cochlear, AMP get the cold shoulder

The S&P/ASX 200 hit an all-time high on February 14, 2025 but AMP and Cochlear fell heavily on results, with AMP cutting its dividend.

Pic via Getty Images

• The local market rose in morning trade with the S&P/ASX 200 hitting an all-time high

• All Wall Street indices rose overnight as US President Donald Trump delayed new tariffs

• AMP and Cochlear have dipped sharply on results, with AMP cutting its dividend as profit falls

The Aussie market is feeling the love on Valentine's Day. The S&P/ASX 200 index hit a fresh record high at 8598.70 points at 10.15am AEDT, up 0.7% before some profit taking appeared to be coming through, dropping back to 0.41% at 12.40pm (AEDT).

The local bourse followed the stronger lead of Wall Street overnight, where the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes closed 1% and 0.8% higher, respectively, while the technology-focused Nasdaq gained 1.5%.

Heavyweight tech stocks fuelled the US rally. Moomoo market strategist Jessica Amir said investors believed US chips and big tech would be the key winners of Trump’s new tariffs, tax cuts and record AI stimulus.

"Nvidia has now gained 18% from its lows, when DeepSeek's AI tech hit the news, moving up US$440 billion in value and rejoining the US$3.3 trillion market size club," she said.

Amir said it’s important to note that US stocks were moving higher as Trump delayed new tariffs until April.

"This eases uncertainty and allows investors to focus on what really matters and drives share prices – company earnings."

She said that overnight, companies in the S&P 500 continued to show their earnings were growing far better than expected, and their outlooks were promising.

AppLovin shares surged 21% overnight after its advertising revenue climbed 73% in the reporting quarter to almost US$1 billion.

"What’s exciting is that the company is still only in the early stages of bolstering growth and AI models to drive revenue.

"There’s a lot to love about AppLovin – its shares are up 920% since last Valentine’s Day.

"It is just one of the 370 companies in the S&P 500 that have released better-than-expected results so far this season, with the average company growing earnings by 11%."

Shares in AMP (ASX:AMP) were dumped on Valentine's Day, falling more than 14%  to $1.50 on its FY24 result, which saw the wealth and banking group cut its dividend payout after reporting a 43% fall in its full year statutory profit to $150m.

The decrease was attributed to spending to simplify the business and a loss on the sale of its advice business. Underlying profit was up 15.1% to $236m.

AMP declared a 1 cent dividend, 20% franked, taking its full year payout to 3c per share, down on the 4.5 cents in FY23.

Hearing-tech company Cochlear (ASX:COH) also dipped, falling around 10% to a five-month low after of $274 after the company released its half-yearly results.

Cochlear reported its implant revenue had grown 13% but that services growth had declined 12%. The company said while it had experienced a strong uptake of its Nucleus 8 Sound Processor when it was launched in FY23, the rate of uptake slowed in the past 12 months.

Management now expects to achieve the low end of its FY25 NPAT guidance of $410-$430m.

Bitcoin, which has been trading pretty flat all week, was up 0.08% $US96,610 at the time of writing. Hang on… nope, a colleague just refreshed his portfolio app… it's actually down 1.54% and changing hands for about US$96,500.

The Aussie dollar is trading around US63 cents.

Nine of the 11 sectors were in the green during the morning session, with the cochlear result hitting healthcare and financials down with AMP and the big four banks all down.

Here’s where things stood on the ASX around lunchtime AEDT:

Source: Market Index

ASX small cap winners:

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for February 14 :

Code	Description	Last	%	Volume	MktCap
SCN	Scorpion Minerals	0.029	93%	3,448,448	$6,141,843
MEL	Metgasco Ltd	0.005	67%	2,100,000	$4,372,760
H2G	Greenhy2 Limited	0.003	50%	637,088	$1,196,368
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.003	50%	200,835	$1,556,978
NRZ	Neurizer Ltd	0.003	50%	200,000	$6,449,341
PAB	Patrys Limited	0.003	50%	100,000	$4,114,895
88E	88 Energy Ltd	0.002	33%	467,233	$43,400,718
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.002	33%	1,892,235	$1,634,591
M2R	Miramar	0.004	33%	4,702,304	$1,190,470
OB1	Orbminco Limited	0.002	33%	510,000	$3,249,885
TX3	Trinex Minerals Ltd	0.002	33%	282,361	$2,817,978
PNT	Panther Metals	0.009	29%	8,781,881	$1,737,195
MRZ	Mont Royal Resources	0.041	28%	37,032	$2,720,953
AMS	Atomos	0.005	25%	81,962	$4,860,074
AUK	Aumake Limited	0.005	25%	736,305	$12,042,769
CTO	Citigold Corp Ltd	0.005	25%	1,125,000	$12,000,000
FHS	Freehill Mining Ltd.	0.005	25%	50,000	$12,314,111
PRX	Prodigy Gold NL	0.0025	25%	852,961	$6,350,111
XGL	Xamble Group Limited	0.02	25%	1,000	$5,424,228
LAT	Latitude 66 Limited	0.077	24%	589,379	$8,890,844
CVR	Cavalier Resources	0.087	23%	245,999	$4,106,797
PBL	Parabellum Resources	0.052	21%	65,791	$2,678,900
ALM	Alma Metals Ltd	0.006	20%	85,841	$7,931,727
AVE	Avecho Biotech Ltd	0.006	20%	40,633,818	$15,846,485
CUL	Cullen Resources	0.006	20%	83,334	$3,467,009

Scorpion Minerals (ASX:SCN) has signed an agreement to acquire up to a 70% interest in the E79 Gold Mines (ASX:E79) Jungar Flats gold project in WA’s Murchison region by spending $3m on exploration over a five-year period.

Historical drilling has returned intriguing gold assays while significant exploration success at Spartan Resources' (ASX:SPR) Dalgaranga project and Caprice Resources' (ASX:CRS) Island gold project have outlined the region’s prospectivity.

ASX small cap losers:

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for February 14 :

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
CR9	Corellares	0.002	-33%	60,455	$1,403,230
ERA	Energy Resources	0.002	-33%	300,000	$1,216,188,722
BPM	BPM Minerals	0.055	-24%	2,258,653	$6,218,799
GMN	Gold Mountain Ltd	0.002	-20%	927,923	$11,448,058
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.004	-20%	186,658	$10,017,783
MML	Mclaren Minerals	0.03	-19%	177,157	$5,236,148
BNL	Blue Star Helium Ltd	0.005	-17%	2,808,455	$16,169,312
IPB	IPB Petroleum Ltd	0.005	-17%	69,100	$4,238,418
ROG	Red Sky Energy.	0.005	-17%	3,440,308	$32,533,363
AMP	AMP Limited	1.4925	-15%	19,143,353	$4,430,544,718
SMS	Starmineralslimited	0.029	-15%	1,042,404	$4,141,426
ADG	Adelong Gold Limited	0.006	-14%	30,057,941	$7,825,923
DTM	Dart Mining NL	0.006	-14%	325,015	$4,186,389
IXR	Ionic Rare Earths	0.006	-14%	3,136,179	$36,668,998
OSL	Oncosil Medical	0.006	-14%	163,244	$32,246,061
SKK	Stakk Limited	0.006	-14%	257,500	$14,525,558
PHL	Propell Holdings Ltd	0.02	-13%	20,000	$6,401,777
DTR	Dateline Resources	0.0035	-13%	1,390,000	$10,065,042
RAN	Range International	0.0035	-13%	95,000	$3,757,161
RSH	Respiri Limited	0.053	-12%	610,015	$90,145,760
LIT	Livium Ltd	0.012	-11%	1,351,219	$18,186,617
AHN	Athena Resources	0.004	-11%	38,023	$9,014,406
EM2	Eagle Mountain	0.008	-11%	3,713,611	$3,608,620
PV1	Provaris Energy Ltd	0.016	-11%	161,079	$12,363,906

In case you missed it

Axel REE (ASX:AXL) has called on the services of globally recognised SRK and ANTSO to conduct its maiden MRE and metallurgical testwork for both rare earth elements and gallium at the company’s high-grade Caladão project in Brazil’s State of Minas Gerais. The company believes Caladão will become one of the only REE + gallium resources in the world, timely given China’s recent ban on gallium exports.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Axel REE and Scorpion Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, the companies did not sponsor this article.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Originally published as Lunch Wrap: ASX feeling Valentine’s Day love but Cochlear, AMP get the cold shoulder