Corporate Travel Management Ltd (ASX: CTD) shares have delivered one of the ASX’s most eye-catching returns — for all the wrong reasons.

The stock only returned to the ASX last Thursday after more than a year suspended from trading. Investors wasted little time selling, sending Corporate Travel shares crashing 86% on their first day back to close at $2.32.

After briefly stabilising, the selling resumed on Wednesday. The shares fell another 9% to $2.03 during afternoon trading.

And shareholders have another headache to contend with.

Potential class action adds to investor concerns

Law firm Phi Finney McDonald is investigating a potential class action against Corporate Travel Management and its former auditor, PwC Australia.

According to the law firm’s website, the investigation concerns alleged financial misreporting over several years. The potential class action would allege Corporate Travel misled investors in its annual financial reports between 2020 and 2024, potentially contravening its continuous disclosure obligations under the Corporations Act.

PwC Australia is also alleged to have engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct and made false statements regarding its auditing of Corporate Travel’s financial reports in accordance with applicable standards.

The proposed action would allege that this conduct caused Corporate Travel shares to trade at an inflated price, resulting in losses for investors who bought shares during the relevant period.

Roop Sandhu, Principal Lawyer at Phi Finney McDonald, notes:

Investors have a right to expect that financial statements from their listed investments are a true and fair reflection of the company’s performance. They are rightfully concerned about their investments in Corporate Travel due to its long term suspension. Likewise, investors have a right to assume that an auditor’s standards meet the relevant legislation and regulatory requirements.

No class action has been filed at this stage. Nevertheless, it’s another issue shareholders could probably have done without.

Some signs of progress

Corporate Travel shares were suspended in August 2025 after accounting problems emerged around customer charge rates in its UK operations.

Since then, the company has been working through a significant customer remediation program. Corporate Travel has agreed or is close to finalising around 78% of refunds, leaving roughly $55 million still to resolve.

There are, however, some encouraging signs in the underlying business.

Corporate Travel’s FY26 result showed revenue and other income increasing 4% to $669.9 million. Underlying EBITDA jumped 36% to $113.6 million.

The company also returned to profitability, reporting net profit after tax (NPAT) of $17.7 million, compared with a $348.5 million loss a year earlier.

Foolish takeaway

Corporate Travel’s underlying business appears to be making progress. However, investors are being asked to look beyond an extraordinary amount of uncertainty.

The remediation program still has work to do, while the potential class action adds another layer of risk. Most importantly, the return of Corporate Travel shares to trading has demonstrated just how quickly investor confidence can evaporate when a company’s financial reporting comes under scrutiny.

For prospective investors, the question may not simply be whether Corporate Travel shares look cheap after their spectacular collapse. It’s whether the market has enough information yet to confidently say the worst is over.

The post Corporate Travel shares plunge another 9%: Is the worst yet to come? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Marc Van Dinther has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Corporate Travel Management. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Corporate Travel Management. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

Less than a month ago, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was trading as high as 9,282 points.

Today, it is sitting at 8,901 points.

That is a fall of more than 380 points from its August peak, with the index now down around 1.8% over the past week and almost 4% over the past month.

Wednesday has added a little more pressure, with the ASX 200 down 0.22% at the time of writing after briefly falling to 8,888 points earlier in the session.

The move comes after Tuesday’s 1% slide, which pushed the market to its lowest closing level in 6 weeks.

A 4% pullback is hardly a crash, but the benchmark index has clearly lost some momentum.

So, is this becoming a more serious sell-off?

Interest rates are back in focus

One of the biggest concerns is interest rates, with investors facing the possibility that the RBA may not be finished hiking just yet.

The Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 4.35% in August, its third increase of 2026, and comments from senior officials this week have kept another move on the table.

Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser said on Tuesday that inflation remains “too high” and questioned whether the rate increases delivered so far would be enough.

Assistant Governor Sarah Hunter also said the board may need to lift rates again if inflation turns out to be stronger than expected.

That could weigh on companies that are more sensitive to interest rates and changes in consumer spending.

Oil prices are another issue, with Brent crude recently pushing towards US$100 a barrel as the conflict in the Middle East continues.

The selling is fairly widespread

It is not just a handful of large companies pulling the market lower either.

At the time of writing, around 120 ASX 200 shares are in the red, compared with 72 trading higher and 8 unchanged.

The major banks are among the biggest drags. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares are down 2.35% to $154.96, while National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) shares have fallen 1.79% to $38.18.

Meanwhile, Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) shares are down 1.26% to $34.15 and ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) shares are 0.43% lower at $36.78.

There is some support coming from the resources sector, with higher commodity prices helping several of the market’s biggest miners.

BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares are up 2.29% to $63.98, while Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) shares have climbed 2.03% to $179.58.

Is the sell-off serious?

At this stage, I wouldn’t call a 4% fall a serious correction.

The ASX 200 is still up around 2% in 2026, and some of today’s weakness comes from several large companies trading ex-dividend.

Those dividends are taking around 8.4 points off the index today, so not all of the decline reflects actual selling.

The post The ASX 200 is down nearly 4% in a month. Is the sell-off getting serious? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended BHP Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

A little over a week ago, Xero Ltd (ASX: XRO) shares were trading above $89.

Today, investors can pick them up for $72.32.

The cloud accounting stock is down another 2.60% on Tuesday, extending its weekly fall to around 13% and wiping out most of its August rebound.

Xero shares have now fallen roughly 37% in 2026 and almost 55% over the past 12 months, having traded as high as $166 over the past year.

That’s a huge change in what investors are being asked to pay for the same business.

And while a falling share price doesn’t automatically make a stock cheap, Xero is getting to a level where I think it deserves another look.

So, has one of the ASX’s best-known growth stocks finally fallen far enough?

Let’s take a closer look.

Why are Xero shares falling again?

The strange part is that there hasn’t been a new earnings downgrade or major company announcement behind this week’s fall.

Xero’s latest updates have mainly been substantial shareholder notices, while its FY26 result was actually pretty solid.

Revenue rose 31% to NZ$2.75 billion, annualised monthly recurring revenue climbed 37% to NZ$3.27 billion, and subscribers increased 11% to 4.92 million.

The problem is that investors are looking past those numbers and focusing on the risks.

Melio integration costs helped push net profit down 27% to NZ$167.4 million, while gross margin fell from 89% to 83.9%.

There are also questions around what AI could mean for software businesses and whether higher interest rates will keep pressure on growth stocks.

So, I don’t think this week’s decline is about one bad piece of news.

It just looks more like investors are still asking how much they should be willing to pay for Xero’s future growth.

Would I buy Xero shares?

At $72.32, I think Xero’s valuation is starting to look a lot more reasonable.

Morningstar’s quantitative valuation puts fair value at $102.60 per share, which is around 42% above the current price.

Of course, a valuation estimate is not a guarantee. Investors still need to watch Melio integration costs, margins, and whether AI changes the competitive landscape faster than expected.

But Xero still has nearly 5 million customers and plenty of room to grow internationally.

I would expect the share price to remain volatile in the short term.

But if I was investing with a 3-to-5-year view, I think Xero is starting to look like good value again.

The post Down 13% in a week: Is the Xero share price finally cheap enough to buy? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Xero. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Xero. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.