The Australian sharemarket edged lower on Monday after having moved between gains and losses for much the day, as investors digested US President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats on trading partners.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed down 9.7 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 8570.4, with seven out of the 11 sectors falling, led by industrials. The All Ordinaries also slipped 0.1 per cent to finish at 8815.3.

Trump declared over the weekend a 30 per cent tariff on goods from the European Union and Mexico, effective from August 1. It’s the latest in a string of letters that the president has sent to countries including Canada and Brazil that sets out new duty rates.

“We just followed the US market [in Australia], where the S&P 500 Index was down 0.3 per cent on Friday, and then S&P 500 futures were down a further 0.4 per cent in Asian trading,” said Bell Potter director of institutional sales and trading Richard Coppleson.

“Markets were just soft, and after the recent rally, just need to consolidate for now as they wait to see what happens in the next two weeks.”

ASX-listed gold miners rose, tracking rising demand for the precious metal following Trump’s fresh tariff threat. Bullion traded near $US3373 an ounce, following a 0.6 per cent increase last week. Gold has rallied by more than a quarter this year, and in April, set a record above $US3500 an ounce.

Gold producer Northern Star rose 1.7 per cent to $16.53, while Evolution climbed 1.9 per cent to $7.58, and Newmont 1.7 per cent to $92.01.

The rotation into the sharemarket’s mining giants continued on Monday, as iron ore prices inched back towards the key $US100 a tonne level. BHP added 0.9 per cent to $39.73, Rio Tinto climbed 0.6 per cent to $111.74 and Minerals Resources firmed 1.5 per cent to $27.90.

That came at the expense of index heavyweight Commonwealth Bank, which eased 0.4 per cent to $178.72. Westpac and ANZ also finished lower, dragging the local bourse with it.

Tech stocks also retreated, with Zip falling 2.8 per cent to $2.78, Appen 3.2 per cent to $1.08 and Block 5.3 per cent to $65.14.

Elsewhere in financial markets, investors continued to pile into bitcoin, pushing the price to $US120,000 for the first time. Daily inflows into spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds have topped $US1 billion ($1.5 billion), according to local exchange BTC Markets. The liquidation of bearish crypto bets that occurred at the end of last week have helped fuel the latest rally.

Stocks in focus

In corporate news, Abacus Storage King jumped 5.8 per cent to $1.56 after confirming South African billionaire Nathan Kirsh’s Ki Group and US-listed Public Storage sweetened their takeover offer to $1.65 per share – a 14.7 per cent increase on its initial $1.47 bid.

DroneShield rocketed 17 per cent to $3.24 following news it is planning to invest $13 million to triple its Australian manufacturing capacity.

Computershare fell 3 per cent to $39.60 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to “underweight”, with a short-term share price target of $33.70, implying a fall of nearly 18 per cent.

City Chic Collective slipped 1.2 per cent to 9¢ after predicting its earnings this financial year would land between $6 million and $6.5 million.

Hansen Technologies leapt 10.9 per cent to $5.30 after the company upgraded its earnings guidance.

And South32 fell 5.1 per cent to $2.95 after the coal miner flagged an unquantified expense on its Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique and placed its full-year production guidance under review.

Thanks for following our live blog – that’s a wrap for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with more live coverage.