Back down goes the ASX and Wall Street, with former superstars once again leading the way lower.
Back down goes the ASX and Wall Street, with former superstars once again leading the way lower.
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By Gemma Grant
Updated March 19, 2025 — 10.39amfirst published at 4.12am
The Australian market has opened lower on Wednesday morning following another volatile trading session in the US overnight.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell by 37.5 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 7,822.9 points as of 11.00am AEDT, following a 0.1 per cent gain on Tuesday. The Australian dollar was trading at 63.61 US cents.
All eleven of the industry sectors were lower in early trade with the utilities and real estate sectors leading losses. Energy companies fell, with Origin (down 1.2 per cent), Meridian Energy (down 0.8 per cent) and AGL (down 1.4 per cent) all retreating. Property giant Goodman Group lost 1.6 per cent.
The directors of embattled tech group WiseTech Global confirmed on Wednesday morning that company founder and executive chairman Richard White misled the board about his personal relationships, which have thrown the $28 billion group into turmoil, but said his job remains secure. WiseTech shares are 0.8 per cent higher.
The miners had a mixed morning, with falls from BHP (down 0.3 per cent), Rio Tinto (down 0.4 per cent) and Fortescue (down 1.8 per cent) on the back of declining iron ore prices. Northern Star Resources and Newmont Corporation were in the green after gold prices strengthened yet again overnight. Mineral Resources fell by 6 per cent after a road train accident prompted a temporary pause to operations on its Onslow Iron haul road.
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All four of the big banks were trading lower, with the nation’s biggest lender CBA leading losses and falling by 0.6 per cent. Insurance companies had a better start to the day, with QBE Insurance (up 2.3 per cent) and Insurance Australia Group (up 0.7 per cent) both lifting.
Consumer electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi rose by 2.7 per cent in morning trade, but Myer slumped by 4 per cent after posting flat sales in its half-year results.
Overnight in the US, The S&P 500 dropped 1.1 per cent for its latest swerve in a scary ride, where it tumbled by 10 per cent from its record and then rallied for two straight days. The Dow Jones fell 260 points, or 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.7 per cent.
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Tesla was one of the heaviest weights on the market after falling 5.3 per cent. The electric-vehicle maker’s stock has been struggling on worries that it will lose sales because of anger at its CEO, Elon Musk, who has been leading efforts to cut spending by the US government. EV rivals, meanwhile, continue to chip away at its business. China’s BYD on Monday announced an ultra-fast charging system that it says is nearly as quick as a petrol fill-up.
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Alphabet sank 2.2 per cent after the owner of Google said it would buy cybersecurity firm Wiz for $US32 billion ($50 billion). It would be the company’s most expensive purchase in its 26-year history, and it could boost the tech giant’s in-house cloud computing amid burgeoning artificial-intelligence growth.
The drop for Big Tech continues a trend that’s taken hold in the market’s recent sell-off: Stocks whose momentum had earlier seemed unstoppable have since dropped sharply following criticism they had simply grown too expensive.
Virtually everyone on Wall Street expects the Fed to hold its main interest rate steady tonight, as it waits for clues about how conditions play out. The job market, for the moment at least, appears relatively stable after the world’s largest economy closed last year running at a solid rate.
More attention will be on the forecasts the Fed will publish after the meeting, showing where officials expect interest rates, inflation and the economy to head in upcoming years. For now, traders on Wall Street are largely expecting the Fed to deliver two or three cuts to rates by the end of 2025.
with AP
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