The ASX is lower today.
The S&P/ASX200 dropped 66.50 points or 0.90% to 7,357.40, having been down 1% in morning trading.
This index has lost 0.95% for the last five days, but sits 3.61% below its 52-week high.
Bottom-performing stocks in this index are Nearmap Ltd (ASX:NEA) down 11.4% and Xero Limited down 5.62%.
Materials, Health Care, Financials, IT and the Energy sectors were doing most of the damage, all in the red.
CSL fell 2.2%, CBA lost 1.7%, NAB crumbled 2.2%, James Hardie was down 5.6% and Woodside Petroleum lost 2.7%.
Fortescue defied the odds, surging 6.5%, while BHP rose 1.4% and Northern Star was 3.1% higher after gold performed well.
Disney disaster
Disney announced its FQ4 earnings and was hit hard by lockdown closures, posting US$0.37 per share on revenue of US$18.53 billion, compared to analyst expectations of US$0.48 per share on revenue of US$18.78 billion.
According to eToro analyst Josh Gilbert, “During the global pandemic, Disney felt the full impact of park closures globally, but it was buoyed by its blossoming streaming service, Disney+. With parks now reopened, subscriber numbers are beginning to slow down, reporting subscribers of 118.1 million compared to the expected 119.6 million. The company also missed expectations on the top and bottom line.
“While Disney+ subscriber numbers have continued to grow throughout the quarter, adding 2 million subscribers, it experienced its slowest ever quarterly subscriber growth. A main catalyst for this has been the lag of content due to production shutdowns, however, this is likely to be transitory and with subscriber number growth anticipated to pick up again toward the tail end of 2021.
“With the summer season passed in the US and government restrictions being eased, it’s no surprise that Disney's theme parks, experience and products revenue are beginning to ascend. Disney is benefiting from improving foot traffic at its parks and increasing demand for cruises and stays. Park revenue grew to USD$5.45 billion, up 111 per cent from a year ago.
“Disney’s shares have underperformed the broader market so far year-to-date, with shares down 3.4%, whilst the S&P 500 has climbed 23.5%. With the global economy continuing to recover, Disney looks set to benefit from lower virus cases and higher vaccine rates, whilst also gaining from its juggernaut streaming service.
“This is a disappointing quarter for Disney, with Disney+ falling short on streaming subscriptions and the income statement hasn’t done much to support this, with pretty weak numbers.”
Musk sells shares … but Twitter didn’t make him
Tesla founder Elon Musk has sold more than 930,000 shares of company stock.
While there was a lot of talk about how Twitter followers encouraged him to do so after he posed the question of the sale to them, it really had nothing to do with.
Plans to sell were already in progress.
Filings made public by the Securities and Exchange Commission show Musk selling more than 930,000 shares of Tesla out of more than 2.1 million options he exercised at a price of $6.24 a share.
Shares were sold for more than $1,100 and less than $1,200 apiece, with plans to sell the stock way back on September 14, according to the SEC filings.
The sale came due to tax bills and expiring options.
“The shares of common stock were sold solely to satisfy the reporting person’s tax withholding obligations related to the exercise of stock options,” the filing read.
From big caps to small caps…
On the small cap front
Venture Minerals Limited (ASX:VMS, OTC:VTMLF) is up 13.95% after joint venture (JV) partner Chalice Mining Ltd recommenced its electromagnetic (EM) survey over Venture’s South West nickel-copper-platinum group element (PGE) property.
Triangle Energy Ltd is up 11.76%. TEG has started a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for a proposed 5,000 barrel per day modular, flexible feed Renewable Fuel Refinery (RFR) in Western Australia.
Australian Vanadium Ltd (ASX:AVL) is up 8.7% today after subsidiary VSUN Energy signed an agreement with leading miner IGO Ltd for a project utilising a standalone power system based on vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) energy storage technology.
Stellar Resources Ltd (ASX:SRZ) is up 8.7%. SRZ has modelled a large magnetic and conductive target at Severn South, within its flagship Heemskirk Tin Project on the west coast of Tasmania.
Kazia Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:KZA, NASDAQ:KZIA) is up 2.26%. KZA’s investigational drug paxalisib is playing a role in PNOC022, a multi-drug phase II study in DIPG and diffuse midline gliomas, that has been initiated at the University of California, San Francisco, with the first patient enrolled to the study.