Markets at a glance 11 March
Around the grounds
It’s a blood bath for the Australian share market in today’s trade, with the broader index sliding to touch a near seven-month low, led by a selloff in financials, tracking a global decline in equities amid further uncertainty around tariffs imposed by the Trump administration stoking fears of a recession.
Wall Street tumbled overnight with the S&P 500 logging its biggest one-day drop since December 18 last year. It comes after US President Donald Trump talked about a ‘period of transition’ and stopped short of declining to predict whether his tariffs would result in a US recession.
Breaking down the details, no surprise, Australian tech stocks have sunk to near a seven-month low tracking peers on Wall Street after the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted its steepest plunge since September 2022. The moves have taken the sub-index down over 10% so far this year.
Gold stocks meantime have lost their lustre dropping the most in three weeks as the price of bullion tumbled, as profit-taking countered support from safe-haven demand fuelled by geopolitical uncertainty.
Energy stocks have added to the losses as oil prices were hurt by fears those tariffs could trigger economic slowdowns, which would in tern slash energy demand.
Finally, on the data docket, NAB’s latest business survey showed confidence has fallen back into negative territory in February despite the RBA’s first interest rate cut since the COVID pandemic, highlighting challenges in the business sector.
Going global
It’s a similar story around the globe. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has skidded 2% tracking sharp losses on Wall Street, with tech leading the drag, while the rest of Asia has fallen sharply. Taiwan stocks have tanked 3%, while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan fell over 1%.
In the bond market, the yield on the US 10 year fell 5 basis points, after dropping 10 bps in the previous session, marking its largest daily drop in almost a month. The two-year note, which usually moves in step with interest rate expectations for the FOMC, also fell to a five-month low.
Futures are now pricing in 88bps of easing from the Fed this year, compared to 75bps at the start of the week.
US futures are back online and pointing to another negative session when trade gets underway on Wall Street.
Moving to the day’s currency plays, and the yen has become investors’ safe haven of choice to trade near a five-month high as fears of a slowdown in US growth rattles Wall Street and the greenback. The big dollar has already logged its largest weekly drop in more than two years as US President Donald Trump failed to predict whether his tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico would result in a recession.
Elsewhere however, moves are more muted. The risk-sensitive Australian dollar is lower, while sterling has held above its 200-day moving average and the euro remains steady. The CAD and MXN are down albeit modestly.
In the news
Finally, looking at some of the stocks to watch in today’s trade. Start Entertainment (ASX: SGR) has opened its books to property funds manager, Salter Brothers, to potentially refinance the embattled casino’s debt through an up to AU$940 million refinancing package. Under the deal, Salter is offering AU$750 million to Star along with the option to pay interest-in-kind for a period of time.
Shares of Australian listed Brickworks (ASX: BKW) have slumped to a one and a half year low as the company says it expects to record a non-cash impairment of AU$55 million in the first half of fiscal 2025 due to poor market conditions in North America, leading to a 13% drop in revenue versus the previous corresponding period. The stock is down 7.5% YTD.
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