Nine of the 11 sectors down as the ASX falls on Wall Street’s lead

The ASX closed down 0.50 per cent on the final trading down of the week, following a horrid day on Wall Street with big tech earnings falling sharply.

The Australian sharemarket fell for the third day in a row on Friday, trading at its lowest levels in seven weeks after Wall Street was hammered.

The benchmark ASX 200 index declined by 41.20 points, or 0.50 per cent, to finish the session at 8118.80 points.

The broader All Ordinaries 42.40 by points, or 0.50 per cent, to close 8379.70 points.

The Australian dollar fell 0.2 per cent to 65.7 US cents.

Wall Street has had its worst day in weeks, with the S & P 500 down 1.9, the Dow off 0.9 per cent and the tech heavy Nasdaq off a 2.8 per cent, after mega tech stocks Microsoft and Apple released their quarterly earnings.

Majority of the market traded in the red following a weak lead out of Wall Street. Picture: Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Capital.com’s senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda said the market was taking a bit of profits taking ahead of a big week in the markets starting on Monday.

“Tech earnings in the last 24 hours were weaker than expected and slightly stronger than expected inflation data (in the US) cast doubts for expectations for profits next year.

“That plus a little cautiousness going into a huge week next week with the election and Federal Reserve meeting scuttled Wall Street, which bled into the ASX200 because we follow that lead,” Mr Rodda said.

Josh Gilbert, Market Analyst at eToro, said it was clear Apple wasn’t firing on all cylinders right now, which put pressure on the Nasdaq. The new iPhone rollout had been disappointing, and its AI features underwhelming.

“Apple delivered a solid set of results but ultimately failed to impress with lacklustre growth across the board.”

iPhone revenue grew by 5.5 per cent year-over-year, jumping to $US46.22bn, beating estimates, but flagged weakness out of China.

The weakness out of the US flowed onto Australia’s markets with nine of the 11 sectors trading lower, with only energy and materials closing in the green.

Some of the weakness was felt in the financial sector, with the big four banks each trading down during Friday’s trading.

The big four banks all fell during a weak day of trading. Picture: Newswire /Gaye Gerard

ANZ fell 0.26 per cent, to $31.07, Westpac was down 0.062 per cent to $32.10, CBA fell 0.46 per cent to $142.09 and NAB was the heaviest hit, down 1.52 per cent to $38.21.

“The banks are pretty richly valued, with CBA not far from record highs while the other banks are trading near record high,” Mr Rodda said.

“The bank story today is very much like the tech story (in the US), in the sense that investors are pulling money out of sectors of the markets that look richly valued compared to fundamentals.

Energy and materials were two bright spots on the ASX with Champion Iron, Mineral Resources and Capricorn Metals performing strongest. They were up 4.77, 3.07 and 3.01 per cent respectively.