The ASX was hit hard today, with its sharpest fall in nearly three months after heavy losses in US tech overnight, a fresh leg down in commodities and a violent unwind in crypto combined crushed global risk appetite.
The ASX 200 had a fairly quiet day at the index level, while at the stock/sector level, it was like Guy Fawkes night, with fireworks flying in every direction. Thursday's session saw further aggressive selling across the high-flying resources, while some recently out-of-favour stocks came back into favour as selective bargain hunting played out across the ASX. Perhaps some switching/rotation is taking hold as commodity prices look to cool.
The ASX snapped a two-day winning streak today, with a sharp pullback in commodities weighing heavily on miners and overwhelming broader strength across defensives and financials. Losses were concentrated in materials while money rotated into healthcare, insurers and the major banks, while tech trod water after yesterday's savage sell-off.
The ASX 200 rallied 0.8% on Wednesday, but the index wasn’t where the real action was. It was a tale of two sectors: strong buying across the miners, and aggressive selling in software stocks. Concerns around AI disruption reverberated through global markets on Tuesday night, and the local names weren’t spared yesterday; if anything, they magnified the losses with most stocks closing on their intraday low as money poured into the more tangible resources stocks.
The ASX wavered on the open but ultimately surged higher as a rebound in commodities dragged the market into positive territory, offsetting a sharp sell-off across high-multiple tech stocks which have faced unrelenting pressure on concerns around AI-driven disruption.
The ASX200 leapt out of the gate on Tuesday, embracing strong gains on Wall Street and a bounce across influential metal stocks, helping the material sector post a 1.5% gain. Interestingly, the embattled tech sector also enjoyed a rare day in the sun, gaining +1.9%. It's not often that an RBA rate hike has to vie for the market's attention, but that was the case yesterday as there was little surprise from Michelle Bullock et al while the precious metal rollercoaster kept riding high - gold traded in a relatively quiet $US330/oz range over the last 24-hours, absurd compared to its historical volatility.
The ASX steadied itself through what was a choppy session, with a quick –35pt index selloff coming straight off the back of the first RBA rate-hike since 2023. Despite the initial reaction, a slow and steady grind higher helped to recover lost ground into the close.
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