ASX drops on tech and health care; Woodside leads energy sector higher

ASX ends lower with tech and health stocks the main drags. Woodside drives energy gains, trade surplus widens, S&P downgrades BHP and Wesfarmers targets growth.

Wall Street was lower overnight amid talk of much higher interest rates and risks of recession. Picture: Nikki Short / NCA NewsWire

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Thursday, June 2. The Australian sharemarket fell as tech and health care sectors led falls. It follows S&P downgrading 'less diverse' BHP and UBS tipping Qantas earnings to beat pre-Covid by FY24.

The S&P/ASX 200 index  closed down by 0.8 per cent to 7175.90.

In the US, the Dow Jones fell 0.5 per cent, the S&P 500 index lost 0.8 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 0.7 per cent.

Stocks fell as Federal Reserve official Mary Daly said that the central bank should continue to tighten monetary policy until inflation falls toward its 2 per cent goal. It's currently at 8.3 per cent, levels not seen since the 1980s.

Among commodities, US Nymex crude oil was 0.4 per cent higher to $US115.08 a barrel and iron ore added 32c to $US135.34 a tonne.

The Australian dollar was trading around US71.86c.