HotCopper Highlights for Week 14 – Mesoblast, Cettire, Neurizon & more!

Good Afternoon and welcome to this edition of HotCopper Highlights, I’m Jonathon Davidson. We’re wrapping up your most watched and most discussed stocks for Week 14 of the year, let’s get into it.

Starting with the most viewed stocks on HotCopper,

Mesoblast climbed to the top of the boards once again on Friday with the news it believes it’s exempt from US tariffs, given that the stem cells it modifies come from US donors. But this is despite the fact Mesoblast sends those samples to a lab in Singapore before exporting them back into the US. While Mesoblast believes it’s in the clear, the situation is actually quite un-clear. 

Elsewhere, oft-controversial online luxury retailer Cettire was slammed on Thursday as Trump’s latest wave of global tariffs kicked in. The company is particularly concerned about the imposition of tariffs on the EU, where many luxury goods it sells are made, and then sold to its US customers. In turn, Cettire will rise prices, underscoring that tariffs do in fact cause inflation.

Finally, the long suffering of former market favourite Pilbara Minerals was further exacerbated this week as a mix of tariff concerns and resilient low lithium prices continue to push down the miner’s shares. Not helping at all is that JP Morgan downgraded the stock to neutral, which is Wall Street’s way of saying “sell” without hurting its client’s feelings. 

And so that was most viewed, but what about the most discussed? 

Illiquid cybersecurity nanocap Whitehawk prompted chatter early week after its share price rocketed off low volumes with its news of inclusion in a ten year long US government contract ultimately meant to mitigate supply chain cyber risks. If that sounds a bit vague, that’s because it is, Whitehawk also added there’ll be no immediate revenues.

Elsewhere, Woodside made it into the most discussed on Friday as the stock slumped a whopping -7% as the price of Brent Crude dipped below $70 dollars a barrel USD on the back of expectations US tariffs will likely usher in a sustained period of subdued demand, which suggests to me at least that some big oil traders might be expecting a recession. Or a ‘recessionary environment,’ if you’d prefer.

Finally, Neurizon has been generating chatter this week as the market digests data from its ongoing studies looking at the efficacy of Montepantel in treating the neurodegenerative condition AML using a drug originally intended for livestock as a wormicide. Some papers have suggested the drug could treat the condition, and HotCopper users are paying attention.

That’s HotCopper Highlights for this week, I’m Jonathon Davidson, have a great weekend and we’ll see you on Monday.