News

The approval by the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) of Japan supports the use of Signatera for adjuvant therapy in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Leerink Partners analyst Puneet Souda believes that the approval from Japan’s PMDA is “an incremental positive for NTRA, as Japanese clinical practice guidelines already support clinically validated ctDNA MRD (molecular residual disease) testing.” “We still think this approval expands its total addressable market (TAM), and there may be additional indications approved in the future, including muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC).” RBC Capital Markets analyst Dan Leonard stated that the approval by PMDA was expected and further consolidates the Japanese market’s position as a significant incremental opportunity, “although we anticipate it will take some time for the market to reach meaningful scale.” Piper Sandler analyst David Westenberg said, “We see this as a major catalyst for Natera, especially considering the favorable environment in the Japanese market. Though historically the international market opportunity for specialty diagnostics has been limited, Japan has certain factors that could make it a unique and highly compatible market.”

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the evolving roles of banks and fintech companies. One key focus was the Federal Reserve’s consideration of a “streamlined master account” proposal, which would allow certain crypto banks and fintech companies limited direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment system. A Federal Reserve master account enables financial institutions to use the Fed’s payment network directly and have the most direct access to the U.S. dollar system. Institutions without such an account typically need to rely on correspondent banks that possess master accounts to offer related services. The so-called “streamlined accounts” are more limited in function and are intended to provide new financial institutions with restricted access. At the hearing, Republican Congressman Dan Meuser stated that access to the Federal Reserve’s payment system is no small matter and that the core question is which institutions should be allowed direct access to these critical payment rails. Traditional institutions such as community banks are concerned that crypto and fintech companies are not subject to the same strict regulatory standards and that direct access may bring security and soundness risks. The crypto industry, on the other hand, generally supports the proposal, arguing that direct access to the Fed’s payment system should have been opened long ago as it would reduce reliance on intermediary banks and foster innovation. In May this year, Trump also signed an executive order directing the Federal Reserve to assess policies for opening central bank payment rails to fintech companies, including crypto firms. Previously, in March, the Kansas City Fed approved a “limited purpose account” for Payward, the parent company of an exchange, sparking market debate over how much crypto and fintech companies should be allowed direct access to Federal Reserve services. At the hearing, a representative from Anchorage Digital stated that if the U.S. wants to maintain its position as a global financial center, it needs to allow for innovative federal and state regulatory frameworks.

2. Trump: Will not accept any US-Iran deal that includes any shipping-related fees. 3. US Secretary of State Rubio: US-Iran technical negotiations will resume at the end of the month.4. Major US banks pass the Federal Reserve stress test, paving the way for dividends and buybacks.5. Crude oil prices have fully retraced the gains made during the Iran war period. WTI fell, with final settlement price near $70 per barrel, the lowest since the Iran war broke out at the end of February. Brent crude oil dropped, with settlement price below $74 per barrel, a new low since the outbreak of the war.6. Micron Technology soared after hours, revenue quadrupled, and gross margin jumped nearly 85%.7. OpenAI: Released new version, GPT-5.5 Instant, greatly enhancing the fun of conversation experience. Will begin rolling out to paid users today and will be available to free users tomorrow.8. Google sees two more heavyweight core AI researchers leave for Anthropic, stock price drops.9. Bitcoin falls back below $60,000. According to data compiled by CoinGlass, nearly $800 million of crypto long positions were forcibly liquidated in the past 24 hours.