Market Beats | AstraZeneca Enhertu Significantly Delays Breast Cancer Progression; Jamie Dimon Says Retirement Still Several Years Away; South Florida Housing Market Cools Sharply as Pending Sales Plunge; US Manufacturing Contracts for Fourth Month; Dollar Nears Three-Year Low; Tariffs Stall Global Private Equity Dealmaking Recovery

—— AstraZeneca Enhertu Significantly Delays Breast Cancer Progression; Jamie Dimon Says Retirement Still Several Years Away; South Florida Housing Market Cools Sharply as Pending Sales Plunge; US Manufacturing Contracts for Fourth Month; Dollar Nears Three-Year Low; Tariffs Stall Global Private Equity Dealmaking Recovery

1. AstraZeneca Enhertu Significantly Delays Breast Cancer Progression

Enhertu, the breast cancer drug co-developed by AstraZeneca Plc and Daiichi Sankyo Co., delayed disease progression by more than a year in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, according to a large clinical trial. The result could lead to broader use of the drug as an initial treatment.

Already approved for various breast cancer types, Enhertu generated $3.8 billion in sales last year. It is currently used as a second-line therapy for about 20% of patients with tumors expressing high levels of the HER2 protein.

The latest trial aimed to assess Enhertu’s effectiveness in newly diagnosed patients. While the drugmakers plan to engage with regulators, oncologists at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago cautioned that broader use will require careful consideration due to side effects and the need for additional data.

In results presented Monday, patients who received Enhertu along with the standard drug pertuzumab lived nearly 41 months before their cancer progressed, compared with about 27 months for those on a standard regimen that includes pertuzumab, chemotherapy, and trastuzumab. Furthermore, tumors became undetectable on scans in 15% of patients treated with Enhertu, versus 8.5% in the standard treatment group.

“The bottom line is the data shows the regimen works. It is having a dramatic impact on long-term outcomes,” said Sara Tolaney, a breast oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and lead investigator on the study. Based on these findings, she said Enhertu should be considered a first-line option for patients with high HER2 expression.

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2. Jamie Dimon Says Retirement Still Several Years Away

Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., said his retirement is still “several years away,” though the final decision will be made by the bank’s board.

“It’s up to God and the board,” the 69-year-old CEO said in a taped interview aired Monday on Fox Business. “I love what I do.”

The timing of Dimon’s departure and the question of succession have long loomed over JPMorgan. He used to quip that retirement was always five years away, regardless of when he was asked, but he has stopped using that line in recent years. The bank raised Dimon’s pay to $39 million for 2024, a record-breaking year in which JPMorgan posted the highest annual profit in U.S. banking history.

In the wide-ranging interview, Dimon also reiterated his view that a “crack” in the U.S. bond market is inevitable, although he declined to predict when it would occur.

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3. South Florida Housing Market Cools Sharply as Pending Sales Plunge

South Florida’s pandemic-driven real estate boom is showing clear signs of slowing.

In April, home purchase contracts in Miami, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale saw the biggest annual declines among the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas, according to a Redfin Corp. analysis. Pending sales dropped 23% in Miami, nearly 19% in Fort Lauderdale, and about 14% in West Palm Beach. Homes in these areas also had the longest time on the market, Redfin’s data show.

“South Florida is the epicenter of housing market weakness in the United States,” said Chen Zhao, head of economics research at Redfin. “The question for the rest of the country is, will this spread? Florida is uniquely bad right now.”

The downturn marks a sharp reversal for South Florida’s housing market, which surged along with other Sun Belt regions beginning in mid-2020. During the boom, homes frequently sold above asking prices and luxury sellers booked major profits. But as migration slows and high costs — including insurance and mortgage rates — bite into affordability, transactions are dropping off.

The typical home in Miami now sits on the market for 81 days — nearly double the average from the 2022 pandemic peak. West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale listings remain active for 83 days on average, the longest in the country.

Prices have started to slide. In March, Florida’s median home-sale price fell 1.7% year over year. In April, nearly 5% of sales in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami closed below asking prices.

“I think you’re seeing a really long, slow deflation of that bubble,” Zhao said.

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4. US Manufacturing Contracts for Fourth Month

Steve Davis, Elon Musk’s de facto second-in-command at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is exiting the Trump administration’s flagship cost-cutting effort, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Like Musk, Davis served as a special government employee, a designation that allowed him to maintain his role as CEO of the Boring Company while working on the initiative. SGEs are permitted to work up to 130 days annually in a government role.

Davis has long been a trusted Musk lieutenant, having worked at SpaceX and Twitter (now rebranded as X), in addition to running the Boring Company. His departure leaves the future of DOGE in the hands of lower-profile White House and agency officials.

Key remaining figures in the initiative include Anthony Armstrong, a former Morgan Stanley banker who helped Musk acquire Twitter, and Antonio Gracias, Musk confidant and CEO of Valor Equity Partners.

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5. Dollar Nears Three-Year Low

The dollar slid toward a three-year low on Monday and US government bonds came under pressure, as disappointing manufacturing data and mounting concerns over America’s debt sustainability rattled investors.

The dollar dropped 0.6% against a basket of major currencies, nearing the low it touched after Donald Trump’s early-April “liberation day” tariff announcement.

The blue-chip S&P 500 index also dipped following the release of the ISM manufacturing index, which came in at 48.5 for May — below the 50 threshold that marks expansion — indicating continued contraction in factory activity. The benchmark later pared losses to trade 0.2% lower on the day.

Gordon Shannon, a fund manager at TwentyFour Asset Management, said the data gave “a hint of tariff uncertainty’s impact on US growth.”

Francesco Pesole, a foreign exchange strategist at ING, said the ISM survey added to “already very weak dollar momentum,” compounded by “soft” demand for US Treasuries and renewed trade tensions.

Yields on 30-year US Treasury bonds climbed 4 basis points to 4.97% — pushing prices lower — in the first trading session since Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sought to reassure markets by saying the US was “never going to default,” amid heightened warnings about the country’s rising debt load.

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6. Tariffs Stall Global Private Equity Dealmaking Recovery

Donald Trump’s trade war has put the brakes on a global private equity dealmaking rebound, reversing momentum that many in the industry had hoped would accelerate under a second Trump administration.

According to projections from consultancy Bain & Company, the value of buyout fund deals in the second quarter of 2025 is set to drop 16% from the previous quarter. April alone saw deal volume fall 24% below the Q1 monthly average.

Private equity firms had anticipated a revival in activity, expecting regulatory easing and pro-business policies under Trump’s second term. Instead, Trump’s sweeping tariffs and fiscal uncertainty have disrupted valuations and limited deal activity to only a few tariff-resilient sectors.

“It’s not that the market has stopped but that it has narrowed,” said Simona Maellare, co-head of the alternative capital group at UBS. “Only a few sectors remain truly transactable.”

An executive at a major UK private equity firm said Trump’s April tariff moves — some of which were later watered down or postponed — had caused “a massive withdrawal of confidence for any new deal-doing in the US for at least the medium term.” The executive added: “I’m not sure that’s quite what Trump intended.”

The value of private equity assets sold in full or in part is also projected to fall 9% in the second quarter.

The figures underscore mounting headwinds for the industry, already struggling from a lack of portfolio company exits that has left backers like pensions and endowments short on capital for new fund commitments.

Bain noted that for the first time in a decade, no buyout fund that closed in the first quarter raised more than $5 billion.

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7. Nvidia posts 69% revenue surge

Nvidia reported a 69% year-on-year jump in revenue to $44.1 billion for the quarter ending April 27, surpassing Wall Street’s forecast of $43.3 billion, even as it absorbs a major revenue hit from US export restrictions targeting China.

The chipmaker, central to the global AI infrastructure boom, expects revenue of about $45 billion for the current quarter, plus or minus 2%. That range puts its guidance slightly below the Bloomberg consensus estimate of $45.5 billion. Nvidia shares rose 5% in early Thursday trading.

The company is navigating the fallout from President Donald Trump’s renewed trade tensions with China, including export controls introduced in April that barred Nvidia from selling its AI chips specifically tailored for the Chinese market. Nvidia said those curbs led to a $4.5 billion charge last quarter and an additional $2.5 billion in missed sales. The company also expects to lose roughly $8 billion in Chinese revenue this quarter as a result.

CEO Jensen Huang said demand for Nvidia products remains “incredibly strong,” but he reiterated criticism of the US government’s export control measures on a call with analysts.

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