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A mildly softer end to a volatile week for equities that started on Monday with a ~2% decline on tariff concerns before recovering to knock-off on Friday afternoon only mildly lower – not a bad effort.
The ASX200 surged towards new highs on Thursday as the buyers drove any resistance into submission throughout a day of relentless buying, with the rate-sensitive financials, consumer discretionary and real estate names leading the gains.
The bulls came to play today with the influential banks driving a strong session overall, pushing the ASX 200 back up through 8500, just ~50pts below all-time highs. The next catalyst has to be earnings as 1H25 results season kicks into gear. Suppose efficiency benefits put in since COVID dovetail in to a better economic outlook predicated on easing inflation, robust employment, good consumption and likely interest rate cuts.
The ASX200 bounced +0.5% on Wednesday and although it still finished well off its intra-day high it was an encouraging session for local stocks who shrugged off weak US futures, following Googles softer than hoped result.
A better finish for stocks today with the market holding onto the early gains, booking its first positive finish for the week so far. Trade tariffs remain front and centre with China’s move to target US energy providing a catalyst for Australian producers and supporting the broader mining sector as a result.
The news out of the Whitehouse is crossing our screens at unprecedented speed, and traders are dancing accordingly. With Chinas 15% tariff having “Trumped” the US President’s 10% move, we have to think, what next. We’re sure Trump wont sit back and do nothing. Yesterday morning felt like Trumps “Art of the Deal” had brought global markets back from the brink of a Trade War but China will prove a far tougher adversary, as we’ve already seen by their retaliation as opposed to acquiescence. However, after two volatile nights of US trade, earnings season remains more important to markets, at least for now.
The ASX rose sharply in early trade, up 67pts at the get go before the rally ran out of steam in the afternoon, void of the backbone provided by the banks, while U.S futures came under pressure late in the session when China announced an investigation into Google for alleged antitrust violations and imposed new tariffs on US products in response to Trump’s 10% tariff on goods from Beijing.
The ASX200 was hit hard on Monday as tariffs towards Canada, Mexico and China came into play. The U.S. previously enjoyed about $US1.6 trillion in business with the three countries leading investors to question the potential impact on economic growth and corporate profits.
A brutal start for the ASX weighed down by the potential of a looming trade war post Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canada, Mexica & China, with only Canada retaliating at this stage. The concern being, this will escalate and put upward pressure on inflation while also having a negative impact on global growth, at a time when markets are trading near all-time highs.
Much of early last week was focused on Chinese AI startup DeepSeek which launched a free, open-source large-language model in late December, claiming it was developed in just two months at the cost of under $6 million. According to market tracker App Figures data, the DeepSeek mobile app was downloaded 1.6 million times by Jan. 25th and ranked No. 1 in iPhone app stores in Australia, Canada, China, Singapore, the US, and the UK.
