Jarden Brief: Moderna surges after teaming up with rival to make cancer vaccine

Moderna gained after announcing it would be jointly developing a cancer vaccine for high-risk melanoma patients. Photo / AP

Keeping you up to date with the latest market moves, in association with investment firm Jarden

International

US

Markets were flat overnight, with gains from the energy and consumer staples sectors offset by falls in utilities and real estate.

Inflationary fears continued to stall momentum, with Producer Price Index numbers coming in at the high end of market expectations.

Pharmaceuticals company and vaccine producer Moderna led the market up, gaining 10.0 per cent after it announced it would be jointly developing a cancer vaccine for high-risk melanoma patients in cooperation with competitor Merck & Co.

PepsiCo climbed 4.0 per cent after raising its full year forecast. Photo / 123RF

Meanwhile, PepsiCo climbed 4.0 per cent after raising its full year forecast, as well as outperforming market expectations in its third quarter.

The company noted that although it had experienced sales volume declines, it had maintained revenue growth through price increases across its brands.

Rest of the World

Volatility in European markets continued, as sustained Bank of England intervention in the bond market seemingly led to widespread confusion in the market.

Yields on 30-year UK government bonds surged back above 5 per cent, before being brought back down after the central bank purchased billions on the market. Most sectors on the Stoxx 600 were down, with real estate stocks leading the decline.

Asian markets dipped slightly, with the Nikkei flat and the Hang Seng down 0.8 per cent. South Korea's central bank hiked its policy rate by 50 basis points to 3.0 per cent, with Governor Rhee Chang-yong repeating messages that inflation was the number one priority.

Commodities

Oil prices continued to retreat overnight, now down to US$92.50 a barrel on a further 1.9 per cent decline overnight.

The NZD saw further strength overnight, appreciating by 0.5 per cent against the USD and 0.6 per cent against the Euro despite stronger treasury yields in both regions.

Australia

The ASX 200 traded flat yesterday. Steel producers slumped after the Dalian iron ore benchmark hit a two-week low, with renewed lockdowns in Shanghai and Shenzhen amongst other cities generating negative market sentiment.

A new survey by the Property Council of Australia found that the country's biggest cities are lagging in terms of office occupancy, with Melbourne and Sydney occupancy back up to 41 per cent and 52 per cent in September respectively.

This compared to other state capitals which were experiencing a much faster return to normal, such as Brisbane.

This compared to other state capitals that were experiencing a much faster return to normal. These included Brisbane, which was now back to 70 per cent, and Adelaide, which returned to 78 per cent.

In M&A news, health insurer NIB Holdings went into trading halt yesterday morning, after announcing an acquisition of Maple Plan, funded by an A$150 million equity raise at between A$6.90 to A$7.50 per share.

Maple Plan operates in the disability insurance space, and generated A$4.8 million of EBITDA in its last reported financial year.

New Zealand

The NZX 50 continued to fall yesterday, down another 0.8 per cent on the day and now down 17.3 per cent since the beginning of the year.

The REINZ House Price Index fell by a further 0.7 per cent over the month of September, with declines in big regions such as Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury driving the fall.

House prices, according to the index, have now fallen 12.6 per cent since their peak in November 2021, with the Auckland region down 17.3 per cent and the Wellington region off 18.5 per cent.

Retirement village operators, who generally trade in line with house prices, tumbled across the board with Arvida Group -5.1 per cent, Summerset -3.4 per cent and Oceania Healthcare -1.1 per cent.

In contrast to the market selloff, the listed electricity companies held up well.

Contact was up 0.7 per cent while Meridian rose 0.5 per cent after an Electricity Authority report said it would be "inappropriate and premature" to make any fundamental structural changes to the industry, despite it finding a need to promote more competition in the market.

Coming up today

There are few expected releases except the Statistics NZ food price figures which may provide more guidance on how inflation is tracking. In the US, the latest inflation and employment numbers are expected to be released overnight.

• For more information on the latest market moves, get in touch with Jarden.

All market pricing and announcements are sourced from Refinitiv, NZX and ASX.

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