Lunch Wrap: ASX starts Monday on shaky legs, Nvidia boss lands in hot water

• ASX slips as banks and property drag
• Miners bounce as Wall Street’s AI nerves linger
• Dyno Nobel gets blasted as NextDC cools off

The S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.2% by lunchtime on Monday in Sydney, as traders returned from the weekend and promptly started throwing things overboard.

Wall Street hadn’t exactly sent a postcard from paradise. The Nasdaq had shed 3.4% last week, while Nvidia lost around 10%.

Meanwhile, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has got problems that no amount of computer chips can solve.

After admitting to an affair, Huang now faces a board investigation following reports that he had been targeted by a Chinese intelligence operation.

Trump still reckons he’s an honourable man. But Wall Street is wondering how a bloke who can see the future of AI failed to see this one coming.

Back on the ASX this morning, property stocks were getting a whack, down around 2% after last week’s 4% rally.

Investors had piled in hoping interest rates had finally peaked. Now they’re cashing out, having remembered the RBA doesn’t take requests.

Banks weren’t much help, with investors taking some cash off the table after hiding in the big lenders last week.

The miners had a different story altogether this morning.

Materials jumped around 2%, with BHP (ASX:BHP) climbing 2% and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) adding 1% as bargain hunters decided last week’s copper panic might’ve been a touch overcooked.

Gold miners bounced too, with lithium stocks joining the party.

In large cap news….

Dyno Nobel (ASX:DNL) makes explosives for a living, but it was shareholders getting blown up on Monday.

Shares tanked 9%, even though the company swung from a $53 million loss to a $66 million profit.

Trouble is, underlying cash profit fell 22% to $331 million, EBITDA dropped 23%, and its FY27 underlying EBIT guidance of $515 million-$555 million didn’t give investors much to cheer about.

Meanwhile, NextDC (ASX:NXT) slipped 3% after Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) and US giant Digital Realty confirmed they’d grabbed a combined 9.9% stake at $9.22 a share.

The pair says there’s no takeover planned. Not right now, anyway, but they’ve conveniently kept that option in their back pocket.

NextDC had already shot up nearly 50% on Thursday after previously crashing 40% over delays at its Melbourne data centre.

Elsewhere, Codan (ASX:CDA) is splashing $244 million on US emergency communications outfit Eventide.

WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC) has appointed Katrina Johnson as its first chief governance officer.

ASIC has called off its insider trading probes into Richard White and two employees, but an investigation into another individual is still ticking along, and the ACCC hasn’t packed up its paperwork either.

And finally,National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) barely budged after announcing former CBA executive Ian Saines will replace Phil Chronican as chairman in July.

Saines warned that new technology and competitors are challenging the banks.

Fair enough, although Australia’s big four have a talent for making competition sound more threatening than it actually is.

ASX LEADERS

Today’s best performing stocks (including small caps) intraday:

Security Description Last % Volume MktCap ATC Altech Batt Ltd 0.002 100% 480,195 $2,669,056 ENV Enova Mining Limited 0.002 50% 500,000 $2,372,395 HPC Thehydration 0.003 50% 300,000 $1,075,977 PRM Prominence Energy 0.002 50% 2,506,667 $2,707,667 HYTDC Hyterra Ltd 0.070 40% 236,976 $5,357,195 RLC Reedy Lagoon Corp. 0.004 33% 1,178,536 $7,647,620 CQT Conneqt Health Ltd 0.005 25% 109,000 $4,065,631 M96 Maverick Minerals Au 0.005 25% 118,008 $7,393,913 TON Triton Min Ltd 0.005 25% 15,678,341 $6,273,555 IMM Immutep Ltd 0.026 24% 25,723,229 $30,956,314 LDX Lumos Diagnostics 0.072 20% 5,463,189 $59,289,976 AKA Aureka Limited 0.150 20% 318,770 $27,472,825 CUL Cullen Resources 0.006 20% 150,000 $3,467,009 NMR Native Mineral Res 0.046 18% 1,955,744 $44,136,800 CYP Cynata Therapeutics 0.014 17% 1,428,409 $4,040,997 IRD Iron Road Ltd 0.007 17% 80,000 $5,041,157 MGU Magnum Mining & Exp 0.007 17% 2,445,136 $19,278,223 SP3 Specturltd 0.007 17% 772,999 $2,495,536 DUG DUG Tech 1.685 16% 223,492 $197,453,281 BIO Biome Australia Ltd 0.370 16% 325,160 $74,050,211 T3D 333D Limited 0.030 15% 23,960 $5,496,282 ASL Andean Silver 1.635 15% 888,176 $326,872,538 GAL Galileo Mining Ltd 0.115 15% 97,311 $19,762,493 GBR Greatbould Resources 0.070 15% 11,230,790 $120,350,536 ACW Actinogen Medical 0.047 15% 7,600,821 $158,840,901

Conneqt Health (ASX:CQT) has scored a 33% contract boost after a US biotech customer expanded its Phase 2b cardiovascular drug trial from 30 to 45 sites.

The deal adds around $340,000, lifting the total contract to $1.36 million, with CONNEQT supplying extra blood pressure monitoring equipment and support services over roughly seven months.

Immutep (ASX:IMM) has delivered encouraging Phase I results for its experimental autoimmune drug IMP761, showing it can significantly dial down overactive immune responses in healthy volunteers, with stronger effects at higher drug exposure.

It was well tolerated across all seven dose levels, with no serious or severe adverse events, while further results due in the first half of 2027 could help shape the next stage of testing.

Lumos Diagnostics (ASX:LDX) is getting its rapid FebriDx blood test into another 97 WellStreet urgent care clinics in the US, taking the rollout to 141 locations, with plans to reach all 200-plus by year-end.

The finger-prick test helps doctors distinguish bacterial from non-bacterial infections, potentially cutting unnecessary antibiotic use, with 365 US sites expected to be using it once the expansion is complete.

ASX LAGGARDS

Today’s worst performing stocks (including small caps) intraday:

Security Description Last % Volume MktCap HLM Highland Metals 0.002 -33% 665,627 $2,606,536 MMR Mec Resources 0.001 -33% 996,977 $2,807,985 QUE Queste Communication 0.020 -29% 275,000 $752,164 CDE Codeifai Limited 0.003 -25% 128,000 $4,798,235 DAL Dalaroometalsltd 0.097 -22% 7,743,655 $50,433,318 ECS ECS Botanics Holding 0.004 -20% 500,000 $8,030,248 EGA Eastern Gas Corp 0.150 -17% 30,784 $4,950,000 1AD Adalta Limited 0.003 -17% 2,768,955 $9,636,507 ARV Artemis Resources 0.003 -17% 425,000 $17,406,195 IBX Imagion Biosys Ltd 0.005 -17% 5,962,127 $4,806,041 NMT Neometals Ltd 0.021 -16% 1,839,903 $21,897,435 EMH European Metals Hldg 0.135 -16% 11,674 $38,050,993 VNT Ventiaservicesgroup 4.870 -15% 3,066,469 $4,673,443,696 ADR Adherium Ltd 0.052 -15% 242,535 $3,348,148 AM3 Amara Minerals Ltd 0.003 -14% 120,000 $10,898,745 ATT Altitude Minerals 0.003 -14% 6,932,000 $2,423,250 BUY Bounty Oil & Gas NL 0.006 -14% 7,269,124 $9,513,340 EMT Emetals Limited 0.030 -14% 226,519 $3,412,504 NWM Norwest Minerals 0.006 -14% 1,535,799 $9,463,203 P1E Pure One Corporation 0.030 -14% 228,065 $15,172,361 PCL Pancontinental Energ 0.006 -14% 152,989 $58,002,562 PER Percheron 0.003 -14% 333,335 $6,938,454 AT1 Atomo Diagnostics 0.013 -13% 15,123,025 $13,536,493 H3E H3 Energy Ltd 0.004 -13% 2,893 $5,363,051 SRJ SRJ Technologies 0.004 -13% 177,055 $6,892,874

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

ADX Energy (ASX:ADX) has started Austrian well work to lift Vienna Basin output and prepare for HOCH-1 gas testing.

Broken Hill Mines (ASX:BHM) has outlined a maiden 13.2–17.1Mt exploration target at Centenary, outside the existing Rasp mine resource.

Critica (ASX:CRI) has extracted gallium and scandium into solution alongside rare earths in metallurgical testwork at Jupiter.

Felix Gold (ASX:FXG) has intersected 12.19m at 2.84g/t gold in step-out drilling beyond Treasure Creek’s NW Array footprint.

Jacaranda Natural Resources (ASX:JRL) has started fieldwork across four White Cockatoo copper-gold prospects ahead of maiden drilling planned for early 2027.

Lion Energy (ASX:LIO) has spudded Indonesia’s Bula Karang-1 well, targeting a gross unrisked prospective oil resource of 12 million barrels.

Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) has signed a non-binding MoU with EcoPro Innovation for up to US$40m in Rio Grande Sur funding.

Waratah Minerals (ASX:WTM) has drilled broad gold intervals between Spur and the historic Essex mine, extending mineralisation beyond the resource.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While the companies listed in Last Orders and In Case You Missed It are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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