Updated ,first published
The Australian sharemarket has edged lower to start the session as investors digested the implications of the latest developments regarding President Donald Trump’s trade war.
The S&P/ASX 200 was down 20.1 points or 0.2 per cent to 9061.3 in early trade, with six of 11 industry sectors in negative territory. It comes after the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Saturday (AEDT), but Trump’s promise a day later to reimpose them at 15 per cent for all nations had investors bracing for an uncertain start to the session.
Financial stocks are mixed in early trade with Commonwealth Bank up 0.3 per cent, National Australia Bank up 0.5 per cent and Westpac rising 0.4 per cent, but ANZ Group slipped 0.6 per cent and Macquarie Group was 0.3 per cent lower.
Mining stocks are mixed with BHP 1.6 per cent higher, but Rio Tinto shed 1.3 per cent and Fortescue lost 0.3 per cent. Gold miners are higher as the price of the safe haven seesawed over the weekend. Northern Star added 0.8 per cent and Evolution Mining advanced 1.6 per cent.
Energy stocks are lower with Santos slumping 3 per cent while Woodside Energy and Yancoal each lost 0.2 per cent. Ampol advanced 0.4 per cent after announcing higher earnings, but a 33 per cent drop in net profit.
Upstart telecommunications provider Aussie Broadband is barrelling towards becoming the nation’s third-largest NBN provider, lifting revenue and upgrading earnings guidance in its half-year results on Monday.
The company reported H1 FY26 revenue of $637.8 million, up 8.4 per cent, with underlying EBITDA jumping 13.5 per cent to $74.7 million. The company also upgraded its earnings outlook for the year and says it now has the scale, brand and product set to keep stealing share from larger incumbents. Shares are 1.2 per cent lower in early trade.
Homewares store Adairs has gained 7.7 per cent after recording a 5.9 per cent lift in revenue from continuing operations to nearly $329 million after gaining momentum in the second quarter following lots of discounting in the first quarter.
Despite the uplift in sales, the group’s net profit after tax slid 33.8 per cent and gross margins declined by 120 basis points to 58.7 per cent.
The company has declared an interim fully franked dividend of 5.5 cents per share, a slight decrease from last year’s interim dividend of 6.5 cents per share. In the first seven weeks of trading in the new financial year, group sales are up 6.4 per cent.
Tech stocks retreated, with WiseTech down 0.9 per cent, Xero 1.1 per cent and NextDC 1.4 per cent.
The Australian dollar strengthened over the weekend and was trading at US70.97¢ at 10.38am AEDT.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.7 per cent. It had been flipping between small gains and losses before the court’s ruling, following discouraging reports showing slowing growth for the US economy and faster inflation.
The Dow Jones added 230 points, or 0.5 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.9 per cent.
Many on Wall Street were likely expecting such the tariff ruling from the Supreme Court, according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. That likely led to the relatively muted reactions across financial markets, and trading remained tentative as investors tried to suss out the long-term effects.
Trump said that the Supreme Court’s ruling had other countries “dancing in the streets, but they won’t be dancing for long.”
With AP
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
