Richard Branson’s space company Virgin Orbit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, and is looking to sell its assets after failing to secure a funding lifeline.
The company has been struggling to secure new funds after its last mission suffered a mid-flight failure, with an issue during the launch preventing the rocket from reaching orbit. Virgin Orbit now hovers around the US$60 million market cap level, despite being worth around US$3.6 billion shortly after listing.
Meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin jumped by more than 30 per cent on Tuesday morning after long time supporter Elon Musk changed Twitter’s blue bird logo to an image of a shiba inu.
Musk has previously advocated the cryptocurrency to his followers for years, and currently faces a US$258 billion lawsuit which accuses him of illegitimately manipulating the coin’s price and helping drive the price up by more than 36,000 per cent.
Italy has become the first western country to ban ChatGPT, due to a suspected breach of privacy regulations.
The Italian data regulator also expressed concerns about the lack of age restriction and the potential for factually incorrect information in the responses.
Australia
The S&P/ASX 200 continued to advance yesterday, marking the seventh consecutive day of gains for the Australian market.
Market headlines were dominated by the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to maintain the official cash rate at 3.6 per cent.
Despite pausing the hikes, the central bank maintained a hawkish tone – reiterating it is committed to achieving its goal of returning inflation to target and will take necessary actions to do so.
It noted it will closely monitor the global economy, household spending, inflation and labour market outlooks when deciding how much to increase interest rates by.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has thrown a spanner in the works for the proposed ANZ and Suncorp Bank merger, seeking further submissions from industry and consumers on how ANZ’s proposed acquisition of Suncorp’s banking arm may impact competition in the banking sector.
The ACCC’s preliminary view is that the information provided was not sufficient to substantiate the claimed public benefits, and said large financial institutions, particularly in banking, have shown ability in the past to exercise market power over their competitors and consumers.
New Zealand
Despite a rocky start to the trading session, the NZX 50 closed up 0.5 per cent yesterday.
Stocks rallied from session lows following the RBA decision, with notable outperformers including Meridian (+3.5 per cent), Synlait Milk (+2.8 per cent) and Infratil (+2.5 per cent).
Unichem and Life Pharmacy owner Green Cross Health shot up by 20 per cent yesterday, after announcing a special dividend of 28 cents per share following the successful divestment of its Community Health division last month.
Mercury has inked a long-term deal with Amazon to supply renewable energy to their Auckland data centres, planned to launch in 2024.
While the financials of the deal have been withheld due to confidentiality, Mercury has revealed that Amazon will take around half the output of the Turitea South windfarm for an agreed price.
Retirement village operator Ryman Healthcare announced it has appointed David Bennett, its current group chief financial officer, as new chief strategy officer for the group.
Sky Television has also farewelled its current CFO, Tom Gordon, who has resigned effective May 2023 to pursue career opportunities elsewhere.
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