Good Afternoon and welcome to HotCopper Highlights, I’m Jonathon Davidson. This is where we highlight what you were watching and discussing most on the forums this week. Let’s get into it.

Starting with the Most Viewed, 

Opthea Limited attracted much attention this week after its Phase 3 trial results treating age-related vision loss came up empty handed – which is to say its flagship drug doesn’t work.

This is the biotech equivalent of a gas company drilling a duster, and sentiment went about how you’d expect. Opthea is now in crisis talks with investors to figure out whether it should keep going, or just give up. Talk about a bummer. 

Meanwhile, Australian dollar store the Reject Shop rocketed this week as a surprise buyout offer from a Canadian value retailer giant called Dollarama valued shares at nearly $6.70 cents each, which a price the Reject Shop has struggled to return to since February 2022.

The question now is whether Dollarama can make The Reject Shop great again – or whether it’s just bought a $260M dollar lemon.

But if you think that’s a risk, James Hardie might be about to pay $14B for something worth far less. That’s because the construction materials company has offered to buy US-based Azek, an outdoor decking retailer, for a frankly ridiculous $14B.

Based on the financial metrics we have from the company, it will take decades for this purchase to make sense from an ROI point of view, and many on the forums were left scratching their heads. 

And so what about the other Most Discussed stocks? 

Caprice Resources was trending on Friday as the company entered a trading halt on the somewhat unusual grounds that it has some drilling results to declare, and, answers to an ASX price query.

Sentiment was bullish Caprice is about to drop bonanza grades, but anybody who remembers Raiden Resources might be feeling a bit more cautious. 

Elsewhere, Bellevue Gold drew ire as it suspended shares voluntarily ahead of an announcement downgrading FY25 guidance.

This comes even as gold prices hit record highs, making Bellevue an ugly duckling in a pond of pretty attractive birds. 

Finally, Australia’s most beloved casino stock Star Entertainment was further pushed into a Dante-esque purgatory as the NSW casino regulator decided to keep its operating licence suspended until September this year.

Star continues, presumably, to negotiate with interested buyers, but without a licence to be a casino, it’s not easy to have a lot of conviction in the company’s future. Thus the busy forums. 

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