ASX ends flat ahead of Fed decision; tech stocks gain, banks wobble

Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day.

The numbers

The Australian sharemarket closed largely flat on Wednesday afternoon, reversing a rise earlier in the day, as investors await the latest rate decision from the US Federal Reserve.

The S&P/ASX200 edged down 4.6 points, or less than 0.1 per cent, to 8309.4, with six of the 11 industry sectors finishing in the green. The gains come after the market rose 0.8 per cent on Tuesday, sparking hopes of an early Santa rally.

Wall Street slid across the board ahead of the Fed rate decision.Credit: AP

The Australian dollar retreated, trading down 0.4 per cent at 63.14 US cents at 4.22pm AEDT.

The lifters

Industrial shares were ticking higher, with tollroad operator Transurban up 1.9 per cent and Computershare rising 1.8 per cent. Qantas added 1.6 per cent as investors appeared unfazed by news the airline has agreed to pay $120 million in compensation to more than 1800 staff it illegally sacked during the pandemic, marking a costly end to a long-running dispute.

Biotech giant CSL (up 1.2 per cent) and software medical imaging company Pro Medicus (up 2.2 per cent) pushed the healthcare sector higher.

IT stocks rose on the back of a 1.1 per cent rise in the nation’s biggest tech company, WiseTech Global. Software maker Technology One rose 1 per cent, and Next DC added 0.7 per cent.

The laggards

The big supermarkets had a lacklustre day, with Woolworths edging down 0.1 per cent and Coles closing 0.7 per cent lower.

Materials stocks wobbled for a third session amid lingering concerns about economic growth in China, Australia’s biggest export market. While BHP and Rio closed largely unchanged, Fortescue shed 0.5 per cent, South32 fell 0.6 per cent and BlueScope Steel lost 1 per cent.

The big four banks were mixed. CBA – the biggest stock on the ASX – fell 0.9 per cent. ANZ slipped 0.2 per cent, while Westpac was up 0.6 per cent. NAB lost 0.5 per cent as chief executive Andrew Irvine told investors at its annual general meeting that the lender was “optimistic” despite “headwinds internationally and domestically”.

The lowdown

Moomoo market strategist Jessica Amir said stocks were rising on the back of anticipated rate cuts in the United States, with tech stocks doing well during the session.

She said Paladin Energy was one of the best performers of the day (up 3.2 per cent), citing the recent national discussion around clean energy.

“If the Liberal government wins next year, they’re likely to ... put nuclear [energy] on the table, and Paladin is Australia’s biggest pure-play uranium company,” she said.

“So ... people would start to buy in if it looks like the Liberals have got a chance of getting in next year.”

On Wall Street overnight, the S&P 500 fell 0.4 per cent, though it’s still near its all-time high set this month. The Dow Jones was down 0.6 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3 per cent from its record set the day before. The yield on 10-year US Treasuries was little changed at 4.40 per cent.

Traders are turning to the Fed’s last rate decision of the year due on Wednesday [early Thursday AEDT]. A quarter-point cut is widely expected, but what happens after is less clear, with the bank’s officials scheduled to unveil projections about where they see rates heading in upcoming years.

While the US economy is resilient, the prospect of inflationary import tariffs proposed by the incoming administration of Donald Trump may give them pause about the pace of further moves.

Bank of America sees the Fed lowering interest rates to the 3.75 per cent level — or three more cuts from where they are, CEO Brian Moynihan said on Bloomberg Television.

Tweet of the day

Quote of the day

“It’s only natural to fear you haven’t saved enough, but the sad truth is that the financial market people who earn their living by managing all the money we save via super have gone for many years playing on our fears, giving us a quite exaggerated impression of how much we’ll need.”

Economics editor Ross Gittins reflects on saving for a comfortable retirement in this opinion piece.

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with Bloomberg, AP

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