Source : THE AGE NEWS
The Australian sharemarket has extended early losses as investors digest the implications of the latest developments regarding President Donald Trump’s trade war.
The S&P/ASX 200 was down 43.7 points or 0.5 per cent to 9037.7 in early trade, with nine of 11 industry sectors in negative territory. It comes after the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Saturday (AEDT), but Trump’s promise a day later to reimpose them at 15 per cent for all nations has led to uncertainty on global markets.
Financial stocks have slid into the red by early afternoon trade with Commonwealth Bank down 0.6 per cent, National Australia Bank 0.5 per cent, Westpac 1.2 per cent, ANZ Group 1.8 per cent and Macquarie Group 1.5 per cent lower.
Mining stocks are mixed with BHP 1.4 per cent higher, but Rio Tinto shed 1.8 per cent and Fortescue lost 0.8 per cent. Gold miners are higher as the price of the safe haven seesawed over the weekend. Northern Star added 0.8 per cent and Evolution Mining advanced 0.9 per cent.
Energy stocks are lower with Santos slumping 3 per cent while Woodside Energy and Yancoal each lost 0.2 per cent. Ampol advanced 0.4 per cent after announcing higher earnings, but a 33 per cent drop in net profit.
Online retail giant Kogan.com is 6.2 per cent higher after lifting gross sales by 16 per cent to $572.4 million and boosting gross profits by 8 per cent to $114.2 million.
The online electronics retailer’s exclusive label and third-party brands grew strongly during the first half of the financial year. Toy and gaming retail platform Might Ape recorded lower revenue, gross profits and negative earnings, but the company said the turnaround was “well advanced” with a new focus on rebuilding inventory with new ranges.
The company has declared a fully franked interim dividend of 8¢ per share, a 14.3 per cent increase on the interim dividend announced last year.
Upstart telecommunications provider Aussie Broadband is barrelling towards becoming the nation’s third-largest NBN provider, lifting revenue and upgrading earnings guidance in its half-year results on Monday.
The company reported H1 FY26 revenue of $637.8 million, up 8.4 per cent, with underlying EBITDA jumping 13.5 per cent to $74.7 million. The company also upgraded its earnings outlook for the year and says it now has the scale, brand and product set to keep stealing share from larger incumbents. Shares are 0.8 per cent higher in early afternoon trade.
Homewares store Adairs has gained 8.3 per cent after recording a 5.9 per cent lift in revenue from continuing operations to nearly $329 million after gaining momentum in the second quarter following lots of discounting in the first quarter.
Despite the uplift in sales, the group’s net profit after tax slid 33.8 per cent and gross margins declined by 120 basis points to 58.7 per cent.
The company has declared an interim fully franked dividend of 5.5¢ per share, a slight decrease from last year’s interim dividend of 6.5¢ per share. In the first seven weeks of trading in the new financial year, group sales are up 6.4 per cent.
Tech stocks retreated, with WiseTech down 0.9 per cent, Xero 1.1 per cent and NextDC down 1.4 per cent.
The Australian dollar strengthened over the weekend and was trading at US70.81¢ at 12.32pm AEDT.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.7 per cent. It had been flipping between small gains and losses before the court’s ruling, following discouraging reports showing slowing growth for the US economy and faster inflation.
The Dow Jones added 230 points, or 0.5 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.9 per cent.
Many on Wall Street were likely expecting such the tariff ruling from the Supreme Court, according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. That likely led to the relatively muted reactions across financial markets, and trading remained tentative as investors tried to suss out the long-term effects.
Trump said that the Supreme Court’s ruling had other countries “dancing in the streets, but they won’t be dancing for long.”
With AP
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