The sharemarket snapped a five-day winning streak on Thursday as renewed angst about US President Donald Trump’s trade policies sent investors fleeing technology stocks.

The S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4 per cent, or by 30 points, to close at 7969 points. The All Ordinaries fell 0.5 per cent. Seven of the index’s 11 sectors finished in the red, led by real estate as Goodman Group sank.

Global trade concerns resurfaced on Thursday as Trump pressed ahead with 25 per cent tariffs on all automotive imports, in a blow to major exporters including Mexico, Canada and Germany. The European Union added to jitters, saying overnight it expected to be hit with double-digit levies on April 2 when America’s reciprocal tariffs come into effect.

The Nasdaq dropped 2 per cent, its biggest loss in more than three weeks, as Nvidia fell 6 per cent and Tesla 5.6 per cent. Gold, considered a safe haven asset, retook $US3033 an ounce for the first time this week.

Disrupting the trend

The Australian sharemarket snapped its longest stretch of gains since January. Signs of a rebound had been emerging with the bourse climbing in eight of its nine previous sessions after falling into a correction earlier in March.

IG analyst Tony Sycamore said the timing, rather than the tariffs on carmakers themselves, had shocked the market. “[This] occurred less than a week before the reciprocal tariffs, and disrupted the recent trend of milder tariff rhetoric that has driven a rally in US equity markets,” he said.

Technology-related stocks tracked the sell-off on Wall Street with WiseTech down 2 per cent to $83.66 and Cloud computing stock Macquarie Technology Group off 4.4 per cent to $64.70.

Data centre operators were also sold off, with NextDC falling 6.5 per cent to $12.01 and index bellwether Goodman Group down 4 per cent to $30.36. That followed news that Microsoft had walked away from new data centre projects in the US and Europe.

Shares in Australian auto-related stocks edged lower amid the tariff news, with aftermarket parts maker Bapcor falling by 2.5 per cent to $4.73, ARB Corporation 2 per cent to $33.41 and Eagers Automotive 2.7 per cent to $15.66.

Stocks in focus

Pro Medicus dropped 7.8 per cent loss to $210 also weighed on the bourse. Profit-taking has hit the $22 billion health imaging software provider in the past month after its more than 166 per cent gain in 2024.

The Reject Shop was among the ASX’s biggest winners, rocketing 109.5 per cent to $6.60 after Canadian value retailer Dollarama lobbed a $259 million bid for the retailer. That had valued shares at a 112 per cent premium to their Wednesday closing price.

Healius leapt 10.7 per cent to $1.45 after announcing a fully franked special dividend of $4.13 a share, which will be paid out following the sale of subsidiary Lumus Imaging.

Domain sank 4.9 per cent to $4.25 after US real estate giant CoStar lobbed a fresh offer for the real estate play of $4.43 a share which it said was its “best and final price”. Nine Entertainment, which owns 60 per cent of Domain, slipped 1.6 per cent to $1.56.

And Clinuvel dipped 2.4 per cent to $11.75 after announcing it would pursue its share repurchase program for a further 12 months and intends to double the number of shares it buys back from stakeholders.