ASX200 falls on miners and consumer staples; Telus walks from $1.2bn Appen buyout

ASX lower as staples and miners struggle. Telus rescinds $1.2bn Appen bid, Qantas cuts flights over fuel prices, Yancoal takeover, Virtus talks with BGH and Endeavour falls on inflation woes.

Markets climbed overnight after the Federal Reserve indicated that rates would rise by half a point at the next two meetings. Picture: Christian Gilles / NCA NewsWire

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Thursday, May 26. The Australian share market gave up early gains to post its worst result in a week as utilities and consumer staples drag.

 

The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.7 per cent to 7105.90 with most sectors closing in the red.

In the US, stocks climbed overnight after the Fed minutes indicated that  interest rates would rise by half a point at the next two meetings, in line with expectations. That’s less than a 75-basis point increase that had been feared by the market.

Officials also approved a plan to start shrinking the central bank’s $US9 trillion bond portfolio.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6 per cent, the S&P 500 rose 1 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed rallied 1.5 per cent.

Among commodities, oil climbed as US stockpiles fell 1 million barrels last week, with Nymex crude oil adding 1 per cent to $US110.84 a barrel.

Iron ore futures, meanwhile, added 0.2 per cent to $US133.34.

The Australian dollar was trading around US70.85c at the US close.