ASX falls 1% on tech and financials; Afterpay ceases trading
ASX down on tech and financials. Afterpay ceases trading ahead of Block listing, Appen gains 3.9 per cent as top performing stock and Megaport dives 16.2 per cent on sales update.
Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Wednesday, January 19. ASX fell for a second consecutive day with nine of the 11 sectors in the red. It follows Afterpay ceasing as a listed company and a 2 per cent drop in consumer confidence.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell by 76.3 points or 1 per cent to close at 7332.5, while the All Ordinaries declined by 79.2 points to 7656.6.
Wall Street stocks fell amid a surge in US Treasury yields on expectations the Federal Reserve will have to unveil several interest rate hikes to tackle a worrying spike in inflation. The Dow tumbled 1.5 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 1.8 per cent and the Nasdaq fell 2.6 per cent.
Oil prices traded at the highest levels in more than seven years Tuesday, in part on hopes of a global economic recovery ramping up demand. US contract WTI hit $US85.74 a barrel, the highest levels since October 2014, before easing slightly to $US85.43.
Iron ore rose 2.7 per cent to $US127.30 per tonne. The Aussie dollar is near US71.85 cents in late US trade.
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ASX slips after US tech stocks battered
The local sharemarket has opened lower after heavy falls across the US tech sector, led by Nvidia. Investors have been spooked following the emergence of a low-cost Chinese generative AI model that could threaten US dominance in the fast-growing industry. DeepSeek hit by ‘malicious attacks’.