ASX News LIVE | ASX to Fall; Commonwealth Bank Profits Slip 5pc

Biotech wonder Neuren Pharmaceuticals [ASX:NEU] has seen its stock tumble today as the first major reports of royalty payments disappoint some investors.

Shares tumbled by as much as -7% in trading this morning, with the shares currently down by -5.2% as the company reports its Q1 24 earnings.

For the first quarter 24 (US quarterly structure), the company reported US$11.6 million in royalties from its new drug DAYBUE and US$75.9 million in total sales. Falling just below the previous guidance of US$76 to US$82 million

The company said seasonal effects negatively impacted its net sales.

Despite this the company reiterated its guidance of full-year 2024 between US$370-420 million, with total royalties from DAYBUE between US$61-70 million.

The company also said it had made ‘good progress’ on the international expansion of its DAYBUE drug, with new drug submissions in Canada and meetings set up with Japanese regulatory bodies.

The company’s stock has seen a -23.5 % sell-off so far this year but is still up nearly 40% in the past 12 months on hopes of rapid expansion of its DAYBUE treatment.

The ASX 200 is down by -0.93% around midday, trading at 7,732.1 as the major benchmark continues to slide through the trading session.

Large losses in Financials (-1.62%) and Discretionary (-1.57%) were notable, while Staples, Utilities, and Energy stocks managed to largely avoid the worst of the sell-off and remained in the green at midday.

In the ASX 200 PSC Insurance was this morning’s top performer, up by +4.88% to trade at $6.02.

A better breakdown of the latest retail spending data from IFM economists shows that alcohol was the number one increase in spending among Australians.

These March figures also showed a notable -6.3% drop in clothing spending last month, which is notable considering the changing weather conditions (at least here in Melbourne which is cold at the moment!)

Click on the image below to enlarge.

Retail details for the March (nominal monthly), the rise in alcohol spending the strongest category in the month. pic.twitter.com/via6wqIf2P

— Alex Joiner 🇦🇺 (@IFM_Economist) May 7, 2024

Judo Bank [ASX:JDO] has announced an executive reshuffle today as new CEO Chris Bayliss keeps a positive tone despite some job cuts.

The SME bank will cut up to 50 non-customer-facing jobs as part of its broader technology investment strategy.

The bank said despite the cuts, it aims to recruit more relationship bankers and expand into new regions as it sees banking conditions ‘normalise.’

Judo reaffirmed its guidance for a full-year before-tax profit of up to $105 million.

With gross loans of $10.2 billion as of May 8, the bank said it was reducing its reliance on expensive funding sources and shifting customer deposits to fund lending growth.

Mr Bayliss acknowledged the impacts of higher interest rates and inflation on credit quality metrics but emphasised strong deposit inflows.

‘The impacts of higher interest rates and inflation continue to work their way through the economy. As expected, our credit quality metrics continue to normalise,’ Mr Bayliss said.

The company’s shares are up by +0.36% in trading this morning.

Good morning. Charlie here,

The ASX 200 opened down -0.42% to 7,771.9 this morning as movements overnight signalled a wait-and-see moment for markets.

Some weaker forecasts in US Tech have put another day of pressure on the top end of the market.

A good example is chip maker Arm, whose shares dropped about 8% last night as revenue forecasts fell short of expectations.

Despite the holding pattern, the Dow Jones gained over 170 points to land its sixth consecutive day of gains — Its longest streak this year.

European stocks were trading higher overnight, with the FTSE reaching record highs on further positive earnings on the continent.

Meanwhile, the Swedish Central Bank cut rates from 4% to 3.75%, following other smaller European nations like Hungary and Switzerland in declaring the battle with inflation was past the worst of it.

Wall Street: S&P 500 flat, Dow +0.44%, Nasdaq -0.18%.

Overseas: FTSE +0.49%, STOXX +0.44%, Nikkei –1.63%, SSE -0.61%.

The Aussie dollar fell -0.18% to US 65.79 cents.

US 10-year bond yields +4bps to 4.49%.

Australian 10-year bond yields +3bps to 4.33%.

Gold fell -0.25% to US$2,309.35, while Silver rose +0.38% to US$27.35.

Bitcoin fell -2.28% to US$60,981, while Ethereum fell -1.57% to US$2,968.

Oil Brent rose +0.73% to US$83.77, while WTI Crude rose +0.23% to US$79.17.

Iron ore fell -2.2% to US$116.00 a tonne.