Jarden Brief: Meta on a Quest for new virtual reality subscription service

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has launched a new virtual reality subscription service. Photo / Meta

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

International

US

Markes were mixed this morning heading into the final week of June trading, with tech shares dragging the Nasdaq and S&P500 lower.

Meta Platforms was in the news as it launched a new virtual reality subscription service, Meta Quest+, available from US$7.99 per month.

This is another effort from Meta’s Reality Labs unit, focused on virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, to create recurring revenue and curb the recent trajectory of a US$4 billion (NZ$6.49b) operating loss last year.

Meta shares traded 3.0 per cent lower at the time of writing.

Biotech company Pfizer, well known for its production of Covid-19 vaccines, lost roughly 4.5 per cent this morning after it said it would discontinue development of a new prototype obesity and diabetes drug, lotiglipron, due to side effects of the product which could indicate liver damage.

Importantly, Pfizer said no trialists reported any side effects.

Other stocks on the move were cruise line operator Carnival Corp (-9.0 per cent) and used car retailer Carmax Inc (-4.5 per cent).

Carnival reported 2nd quarter earnings coming in at a loss of 32 cents per share, but also forecasted lighter than expected third quarter revenue which pushed the stock lower.

That was despite other management commentary suggesting full year occupancy was expected to reach 100 per cent or higher compared to pre-covid FY19 levels.

Other listed cruise line peers traded lower on the news, including Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (-4.3 per cent) and Royal Caribbean Cruises (-1.0 per cent) at the time of writing.

On the flip side, Boston Properties Inc was the market leader finding an 8.6 per cent gain on the back of a successful sale of one of its New York office properties. .

Rest of the World

European indices opened mixed also, after a weekend that involved an attempted military coup in Russia, reminding investors and all people alike to the reality of the ever-evolving situation in eastern Europe.

Commodities

Oil traded 0.5 per cent higher, in line with commentary over the weekend from Opec claiming world oil demand will rise roughly 23 per cent to 110 million barrels per day by 2045, contradicting earlier messaging from the International Energy Agency which predicted a reduction in demand.

Bitcoin continues to push higher over the last few months, surging through the US$30,000 mark over the weekend, currently trading at US$30,218.3

New Zealand

New Zealand equities lost ground to start the week as the NZ50 finished lower by 0.8 per cent.

On what was a day of limited stock specific news, key contributors against the run of play were Pacific Edge and Serko, who found 6.9 and 2.3 per cent gains, respectively.

Pacific Edge continues to trade with volatility following the majority of its market cap being wiped out on the back of its main product, CXbladder, being excluded from Medicare funding in the US, essential to its revenue growth.

Serko traded ahead of its annual shareholder meeting (ASM) at the end of the week.

In contrast, market laggards were chaired by large-cap healthcare companies Ebos and Fisher and Paykel Healthcare on what seemed limited news flow.

Australia

The ASX200 was also in the red, impacted by the geopolitical turmoil in eastern Europe with the headline index finishing 0.3 per cent lower at 7,078 points.

Highlights included Metcash (+4.5 per cent) which rallied on the back of record annual sales and earnings data.

Gold miners Capricorn Metals and Silver Like Resources leapt 4.4 and 4.3 per cent with the underlying price of gold lifting amidst the mentioned geopolitical turmoil in eastern Europe with some investors flocking to safe haven assets.

Similar to the NZX, larger cap names dragged the index down as mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto lost 0.7 per cent each. Syrah Resources was the biggest underperformer, down 6.0 per cent ahead of its own ASM later in the week.

Outside of the ASX, Appen (tech and AI focussed) lost 12 per cent with the announcement its current CEO would depart in what looked an abrupt resignation.

In M&A news, it has been revealed that Private Equity (PE) group Allegro Funds have agreed to acquire a spinoff of the public sector consulting arm of PwC Australia for the sum of just A$1.

The development comes in the wake of an ongoing scandal that originated with the information that employees of PwC’s tax division used privileged information to win business from clients, effectively front running potential tax changes before they had been made known to the general public.

The business would include 130 former PwC partners and 1750 staff.

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

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