Energy, consumer shares weigh on ASX; bitcoin below $US100,000

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

The numbers

The Australian sharemarket finished lower on Friday, with every sector bar utilities retreating after the huge rally in US stocks lost momentum overnight and oil prices slid lower.

The ASX 200 closed 0.6 per cent lower at 8420.9 points, ahead of a monthly US jobs report due on Friday night, which could affect the outlook for US interest rates. The decline came after Wall Street slipped from a record high overnight and bitcoin retreated from its all-time highs above $US100,000.

Wall Street has had a quiet session.Credit: AP

The lifters

The utilities sector, which lifted 0.4 per cent, was the only sector that rose. Shares in pipeline business APA Group gained 1.4 per cent after the Australian Energy Regulator confirmed that APA’s South West Queensland Pipeline would not be subject to price regulation.

Automotive parts group Bapcor was the strongest performer on the index, gaining 3.1 per cent, followed by Bellevue Gold (up 2.6 per cent) and Nine Entertainment and Smartgroup Corporation, both gaining 2 per cent. Nine is the owner of this masthead.

The laggards

Ten of the 11 sectors on the ASX were in the red, with the biggest falls in energy stocks (down 1.2 per cent) and consumer discretionary stocks (down 0.9 per cent).

With iron ore prices falling, the big miners lost ground in morning trading, though BHP finished 0.3 per cent higher. Rio Tinto closed 0.8 per cent lower and Fortescue declined 1.1 per cent.

Energy giant Woodside ended the day 2.2 per cent lower. Crude oil prices slipped by 2 per cent after eight members of the OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries decided to put off increasing oil production.

The lowdown

The Australian stock exchange ended the week virtually unchanged from where it began.

“Despite another week of geopolitical noise with the fall of the French government, a few hours of martial law in South Korea and more noise around Trump, global sharemarkets mostly rose, helped by solid US economic data and ongoing expectations for rate cuts globally,” AMP chief economist Shane Oliver wrote in a note.

He said shares were “torn” between the negatives of high valuations, uncertainties over the size of potential rate cuts and Trump’s trade policies, versus the positives of a global easing cycle in interest rates, optimism around Trump’s economic impact, and stronger profits in Australia.

“And we are now in a seasonally strong period of the year for shares,” Oliver added. “Our overall assessment remains that the trend is still up, including for Australian shares, but expect a more volatile and constrained ride.”

He described Australian GDP growth as “dismal”, with implications for both the government and the Reserve Bank.

“Taken together with output price pressures in various business surveys, this indicates the RBA should be considering a rate cut sooner rather than later,” Oliver said.

Investors believe the RBA will hold interest rates next Tuesday, and AMP expects the central bank will move rates in May, but good inflation figures in December could make a February rate cut more likely.

Commonwealth Bank closed 0.6 per cent lower, losing its ground from earlier in the day, trading lower along with Westpac (down 1.4 per cent), ANZ (down 0.1 per cent) and National Australia Bank (down 0.4 per cent).

Overnight, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2 per cent from the all-time high it had set the day before, its 56th of the year so far, to shave a bit off what’s set to be one of its best years of the millennium. The Dow Jones fell 248 points, or 0.6 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2 per cent from its own record set the day before.

Bitcoin powered above $US100,000 for the first time the night before after President-elect Donald Trump chose Paul Atkins, who’s seen as a crypto advocate, as his nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was fetching $US97,980 late on Friday.

Tweet of the day

Quote of the day

“There have been no changes to ARN’s executive leadership team, and no members have been made redundant. Any claims suggesting otherwise are incorrect.” That’s an ARN spokesperson after shuffling its ranks to free up cash after signing Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson to a landmark $200 million contract.

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with AP, AAP

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