The ASX200 gave back over 50-points yesterday with 65% of stocks falling, declines were led by the Banks and Resources with some clear “risk off” profit taking washing through the market. The news was thin on the ground but in unison with a pullback in the Aussie and a wobbly US futures market we saw the buyers simply back off letting the sellers win the day, importantly there was nothing aggressive / scary about the session plus remember our “Gut Feel” is we see the index dip under 6500 before the uptrend resumes.
The ASX200 advanced +0.4% on Tuesday, posting a new 12-week high, but overall it was a disappointing performance after an early +1% move, especially compared to the 3.3% overnight surge by the US S&P 500 Index.
The ASX rallied today, keying off a good session in the U.S predicated on positive tariff developments, though the move was somewhat disappointing/unconvincing. Stocks saw the best of it early, with a clear rotation out of defensives into cyclicals, and while some held their gains for the full session, others experienced profit taking, pushing the index ~45pts off it’s highs.
The ASX200 struggled on Monday, failing to embrace a strong opening by the US S&P 500 futures after the US and China reported “substantial progress” after two days of talks in Switzerland aimed at de-escalating the worrying trade war. The main board opened strongly up almost 50 points before drifting lower throughout the session to finish basically unchanged as optimism around trade succumbed to caution.
Poised for a relatively uneventful session after a soft US market on Friday night, trade talks between the White House and China over the weekend set off US futures this morning, lighting a spark for the Australian market early.
Senior US and Chinese negotiators resumed the high-stakes talks on Sunday in an attempt to de-escalate their trade war/embargo. President Donald Trump called Saturday's discussions a “very good” meeting. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng were leading the negotiations expected to span two days in Switzerland, the first publicised, in-person talks since President Donald Trump imposed 145% levies on China and Beijing retaliated with 125% tariffs on many American goods and new export controls on rare earth minerals.
The ASX 200 ended a relatively quiet week down just 0.1%, not a bad effort considering ANZ and Westpac (WBC) delivered slightly softer 1H25 results, and WBC traded ex-dividend. Positive tariff news from the UK and US, plus optimism that something positive will come from the pending early talks between the US and China, supported a fairly lacklustre market, which remained in a tight 1.3% range all week. With news flow from Trump 2.0 relatively slow, the market was primarily keying off stock-specific news from reporting and the Macquarie Conference, leading to a very mixed bag in the “Winners & Losers” enclosure:
Technology stocks led the way today as the market opened a soft +10pts higher but quickly gained momentum following a positive session in the US overnight where risk-on sentiment fueled small caps higher after framework around trade policy between the White House and the UK firmed – a 10% base, though potential rollback of certain tariffs remains in play.
The ASX200 embraced the rumours that Trump's much-awaited “good news” was a trade deal with the UK, which, on top of the previous day’s announcement that the US and China would sit down and talk this week in Switzerland, was enough to lift the local index up +0.16% after a soft opening.
A fairly quiet day across the board, though, it was positive with 75% of the main board finishing in the green as Trump talks up trade deals…"Big News Conference tomorrow morning at 10:00 A.M.," he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The ASX 200 lived in the future rather than the past on Wednesday, ignoring a weak overnight session on Wall Street, instead focusing on the fresh news that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and top trade official Jamieson Greer would meet with their Chinese counterparts this week in Switzerland.
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