The ASX is trading lower today.
The S&P/ASX200 has dropped 8.90 points or 0.12% to 7,370.40 at time of writing, despite crossing above its 50-day moving average.
Over the last five days, the index has gained 0.77% and is currently 3.44% off its 52-week high.
The bottom-performing stocks are Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) down 15.59% (as Novartis cancelled a respiratory distress syndrome cell therapy deal) and Woolworths Group Ltd down 8.23%.
Coles also fell, down 5.6%. Metcash lost 1.1%.
Travel stocks fell in line with overseas trends concerning Omicron and were also down.
Flight Centre and Corporate Travel Management were both down more than 1%.
Meanwhile, Afterpay was down 3% as it voted on the Block merger. Nearmap was 9.2% higher.
Woolworths waiting for Christmas bump
Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci addressed the market today saying Australian consumers were yet to stock their Christmas pantries.
“We had thought Christmas might come early this year and through a variety of events it hasn’t got the same profile as previous years, it is getting really busy right now … but it does appear that consumers have left their run for Christmas shopping late.
"This is a world where consumers traditionally leave the Christmas shop later and later, we had thought maybe this year would be different that people would shop a bit earlier but the ongoing anxieties around Delta and now Omicron, we haven't seen that, we thought maybe this year would be the exception.
“It hasn’t proved to be true. There hasn’t been an early bump,” Banducci says.
The market didn’t like Banducci’s comments, with the stock way down this morning.
Banducci made it clear that the pandemic and keeping stores COVID safe has contributed to its flagship Australian food arm reporting a first-half profit below market expectations.
It will also have to swallow total direct and indirect costs linked to COVID-19 of as much as $220 million in the first half of 2022.
Banducci is hopeful of increasing sales in January, particularly through Big W stores.
“We do expect this peak event and January is really important and back to school is the second biggest event for example at Big W so as you get to the end of January back to school for a discount department store is a huge event, it is pretty important in food but much bigger at Big W.”
On the crypto front
eToro’s Simon Peters has given us our weekly crypto update…
Bitcoin struggled to recapture any momentum last week, in the aftermath of big falls the weekend prior.
The crypto-asset began the week trading below $49,000 and despite climbing over $51,000 on Tuesday has struggled to keep its value over the $50,000 level for the rest of the week.
BTC traded as low as $46,805 on Friday but has since recovered some ground and is now trading above $48,600.
Ether, meanwhile, saw rises early in the week, reaching over $4,400 at points on Thursday. But weakness in trading has led to ETH falling over the weekend, reaching the week’s low of $3,825 on Saturday. Despite a brief rally above $4,100 late on Sunday, ETH is currently trading just below $4,000.
WhatsApp to allow crypto payments
WhatsApp is trialling in-app crypto-asset payments via the Novi wallet.
The Meta (formerly Facebook) owned firm is opening a pilot program to a limited number of users in the US.
Those enrolled in the trial will be able to send and receive US Pax Dollars (USDP) - a US dollar-pegged stablecoin.
Meta says however that as soon as its inhouse crypto-asset Diem, which has suffered years of setbacks thanks to regulators, is given approval then it will replace USDP in the trial.
Novi's chief executive Stephane Kasriel commented: "We're still very early in the Novi pilot journey, so we made the decision to test this new entry point in one country to start and will look to extend it once we've heard from people what they think of this new experience.”
There is currently no indication when the project may be rolled out to other regions, or if other crypto-assets such as bitcoin or ether will become available to WhatsApp users.
Ubisoft to launch in-game NFTs
Giant gaming publisher Ubisoft has announced it is adding NFTs to its games, with unique in-world collectibles coming to games such as Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Ubisoft says it is the first publisher in the world to offer playable NFTs in an AAA game. Players will be able to collect and use the NFTs, which began rollout on Thursday.
The firm says there shouldn’t be environmental concerns around the tokens and that they are “energy-efficient” and use the “environmentally sustainable” Tezos blockchain.
The project, called Ubisoft Quartz, will allow players to buy and sell their NFTs, called ‘Digits’, outside of the Ubisoft ecosystem. The NFTs will be stored on the Tezos blockchain.
Buy flights with SHIB
Travel website Travala has announced it will now accept Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens for bookings.
It comes as the firm held an online vote which it called a “token battle” to decide whether SHIB or FLOKI should be launched on the firm’s site. SHIB ended with more than 3.4 million votes to FLOKI’s 1.5 million.
The results mean customers can now book flights, hotels and travel packages using SHIB. According to Travala 82% of its bookings in November were made using crypto-assets.
On the small cap front
Kingwest Resources Ltd (ASX:KWR) is up 11.11%. KWR has doubled the known strike length of the Sir Laurence gold discovery at Goongarrie Project to more than 2 kilometres of strike length and 500 metres of width through aircore drilling.
Pantoro Ltd (ASX:PNR) is up 5.88% after entering a binding term sheet for a lithium development partnership with Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN).
Noxopharm Ltd (ASX:NOX) is up 5.48%. NOX is building momentum around a phase two trial for its experimental immunotherapy DARRT-2 cancer treatment candidate.
Hillgrove Resources Ltd (ASX:HGO) is up 5.45%, confirming the “excellent project potential” of the Kanmantoo Copper Project with an Underground Stage 1 economic assessment demonstrating post-tax cash flows of A$196 million from the planned recommencement of operations in 2022.
Burley Minerals Ltd (ASX:BUR) is up 3.03%. BUR has unveiled changes to its executive management following a review of its board, management composition and corporate governance principles as the company enters the next dynamic phase of growth.
Legend Mining Ltd (ASX:LEG) is up 1.75%. LEG has completed gathering data for its 3D seismic survey at Mawson prospect within the Rockford Project, Fraser Range, Western Australia.
FYI Resources Ltd (ASX:FYI) is 1.61% higher. FYI has closed the books on week two of its high-purity alumina (HPA) trial with Alcoa (NYSE:AA).