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The ASX200 fell 0.6% on Thursday as the influence of miners rather than tech weighed on the local bourse. The local market slipped for the first time since Donald Trump’s inauguration amid fears of what the US president’s promised tariffs might do for trade with China. Investors remain scared of Trump’s tariffs towards China, and despite a mention of a 10% cent tariff (only), it was enough to see buyers retreat on mass.
A solid session overnight in the U.S didn’t translate to the ASX today – the differentials in sector composition on full display. Resources were hit hard as lower commodity prices weighed, with the local bourse lacking a real tech sector to offset that weakness.
The ASX200 closed up +0.3% on Wednesday, extending January’s gain to +3.6%. Again, the market surrendered ~50% of its mid-morning rally, but a close less than 1% below its all-time high is encouraging for the bulls.
Another choppy session with the best of it seen early, the ASX hitting a 8455 high before tapering off in the afternoon session, though we still closed higher. Asian markets were softer despite Trump commenting about a 10% tariff on China, a far cry from the 60% suggested during the election, but that failed to have any impact on the Material sector, with a bunch of production updates the greater influence.
The ASX200 closed up +0.66% on Tuesday, but it was intra-day action that told the real story of Donald Trump’s first day of his second term as President of the US. Local stocks surged over 100 points into a late-morning high – “risk-on” played out across the bourse as the index surged toward striking distance of its all-time high.
Volatility is back as Trump gets his feet under the desk in the Oval Office; the ASX 200 trading in a broad ~100pt trading range today finishing around the mid-point as he pushed through ~100 executive orders that ranged from curtailing hiring of federal employees, freezing regulations, withdrawing the U.S. from a climate treaty to fight global warming, promoting development of domestic energy production, and taking action to reduce consumer costs, among others.
The ASX200 rallied +0.45% on Monday, extending January’s gain to +2.3%. Real estate and energy stocks have boosted the index, with both sectors already up over +5% in 2025. In the morning, iron ore goliaths, BHP and RIO contributed over 10 points to the market’s gain, or more than 25%, as the miners slowly gather momentum, although most remain well below where they commenced 2024.
Positive sentiment spilled over from the U.S in anticipation of Donald Trump’s inauguration tonight and the rumoured ~100 executive orders due to come along with it; the actions expected to address tariffs, immigration and the energy sector straight off the bat.
Donald Trump will become President of the United States tomorrow morning (our time), and as we know, since his victory in November, equities have embraced his return to the Whitehouse. This has pushed valuations higher as momentum moves dominated 2024 with many major stocks trading well above their average P/E’s of recent years, with the banks receiving significant coverage in the press.
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