The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has followed Wall Street's lead and dropped deep into the red. At the time of writing, the benchmark index is down 1.4% to 7,736 points.
Four ASX shares that are not letting that hold them back today are listed below. Here's why they are rising:
4DMedical Ltd (ASX: 4DX)
The 4DMedical share price is up 3% to 81 cents. This follows news that US President Biden has signed a six-bill, US$460 billion package on Saturday, approving full-year funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs among other offices. The new funding will include screening technologies, which 4DMedical could benefit from greatly.
Block Inc (ASX: SQ2)
The Block share price is up 4% to $121.58. This follows an equally strong night of trade for the payments company's shares on Wall Street on Friday. Block's shares have now doubled in value since the start of November.
Judo Capital Holdings Ltd (ASX: JDO)
The Judo Capital share price is up 4% to a 52-week high of $1.42. Investors have been buying this small business lender's shares since the release of a broker note out of Goldman Sachs last week. Its analysts put a buy rating and $1.66 price target on the company's shares. They said: "We think the market's skepticism around the at-scale NIM focuses on the lending spread assumption of mid-4%, given the 1H24 spread was <4%."
Mesoblast Ltd (ASX: MSB)
The Mesoblast share price is up 6.5% to 33.5 cents. This has been driven by news that the biotech company has been given a big boost from the US FDA. The federal agency revealed that it will support an accelerated approval pathway for rexlemestrocel-L under the existing Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designation. It is Mesoblast's allogeneic mesenchymal precursor cell product for patients with end-stage ischemic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and a left ventricular assist device.
