ASX 200 ends week 2.4pc lower; tech stocks lead falls as coal miners rally

All sectors down after sharp falls on ASX 200. Tech and discretionary hardest hit, coal miners buck trend, bond yields surge, MinRes loses lithium boss and OZ green lights mine.

Australian investors are set to react to the US Federal Reserve’s latest interest rates hike, which sent stocks lower on Wall St overnight. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Friday, September 23. The Australian sharemarket ends the week firmly in the red as fears that interest rates will remain higher for longer spark heavy selling.

The S&P/ASX 200 lost 125.52 points, or 1.9 per cent to 6574.70. For the week, the index lost 2.4 per cent to be down by 6 per cent for the month.

Wall Street closed lower with the S&P 500 index down 0.8 per cent to 3757 points while the Nasdaq index fell 1.3 per cent to 11,066 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average index was 0.3 per cent lower to 30,076 points.

US 10-year bond yields rose to 3.70 per cent, while two-year yields are higher at 4.11 per cent – both setting new highs dating back more than a decade.

Oil prices are higher with global benchmark Brent crude rising 0.5 per cent to $US90.34 per barrel and the US Nymex is up 0.6 per cent to $US83.44 per barrel.

Iron ore futures rose by 0.2  per cent to $US98.83 per tonne.

The dollar was near US66.26c at the local close.