Shares of Incannex Healthcare Ltd (ASX: IHL) are on ice today pending a company announcement. Before being placed on the backburner, the Incannex share price rested at 38 cents apiece.
Zooming out, shares of the cannabis player have faltered more than 39% this year to date, amid a violent selloff in growth-type shares in 2022.
In wider market moves, the S&P/ASX 200 Health Care Index (ASX: XHJ) has crumbled today and is now more than 3% in the red, bringing losses to 12% this year.
Meanwhile, in the US, the Nasdaq Composite Index (Nasdaq) fell sharply overnight, marking its largest single-day drop since 2020.
Investors sold off shares in the tech-biased Nasdaq after US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell raised the Fed's base interest rate by 0.5 percentage points, in an effort to control inflationary pressures.
Why is the Incannex share price halted?
The company requested its shares be put on ice in lieu of a market-sensitive announcement regarding upcoming study readouts.
"[Incannex] requests a trading halt to be applied to its securities…pending an announcement by the company regarding results of its extensive preclinical study assessing IHL-216A in a sports concussion model," it said in the filing.
"The Company requests that the trading halt remains in place until the earlier of the commencement of normal trading on May 10, 2022 or the release of the announcement."
Naturally the ASX awarded Incannex its request and, as such, investors must now wait until the company posts its next update on or before May 10.
Earlier in the year, investors appeared rattled by Incannex's decision to acquire APIRx Pharmaceutical USA, LLC for US$93 million.
Even though it now claims a total addressable market of more than US$400 billion globally, investors didn't appear as thrilled.
As such, losses have continued into May and shares have stooped from a high of 70 cents in March.
Incannex Healthcare share price snapshot
In the last 12 months, the Incannex Healthcare share price has held a 24% gain. However, it has collapsed into the red on each of the shorter time frames.
