ASX News LIVE | ASX Tumbles after Heavy Losses on Wall St; Yancoal, Alumina Feature

A widespread IT outage is causing significant disruptions across Australia and several other countries.

Banks, including NAB, ANZ, and Bendigo Bank, are experiencing issues, while media outlets such as ABC and Nine Network face broadcasting difficulties.

Tech giants Telstra and Microsoft are also affected, with many Microsoft 365 services currently inaccessible.

The root cause appears to be problems with Crowdstrike’s anti-malware software, which is triggering the infamous ‘blue screen of death’ on Windows computers and preventing system reboots.

The outage has spread beyond Australia, impacting New Zealand, Japan, and India as well.

Crowdstrike says it’s actively investigating the issue as companies scramble to restore their services.

At the Republican National Convention today, Donald Trump has reaffirmed his tough stance on immigration.

Accepting the party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential race, Trump declared his intention to seal America’s borders immediately upon taking office.

‘The entire world is pouring into our country,’ Trump stated, attacking the current administration’s policies.

He then laid out his day-one priorities, emphasizing his famous ‘Drill, baby, drill’ slogan to promote increased domestic energy production and promising to ‘close our borders‘ to address illegal immigration.

These stances are hardly surprising for Trump, whose held long-standing focus on border security and energy independence.

But as the November election approaches, Trump’s hardline position on immigration and energy sets a clear contrast with his opponents.

These policy stances will likely be central to the upcoming presidential debates and voter decisions in the 2024 election.

CBA economists have updated their forecasts for building commencements based on recent ABS data.

The latest ABS figures showed total dwelling commencements rose 0.5% to 39,715 dwellings, with new private sector house commencements up 4.8% to 25,072 dwellings and new private sector other residential commencements down 3.1% to 14,071 dwellings.

However, the value of total building work done fell 3.5% to $33.4 billion.

In a research note today, CBA downgraded their 2024 forecast from 166,000 to 160,000. The note explains:

“Approvals have been a touch weaker than we had expected so far in 2024 which underpins the slight downgrade to our forecast. An annual result of 160,000 would be the weakest outcome in a decade.”

Looking further ahead, CBA Economics anticipates commencements to rise to 174,000 in the 2025 calendar year.

This would be on the expectation of lower interest rates, forecasting 125 basis points of interest rate cuts by the end of 2025.

A high-ranking Communist Party official responsible for financial and economic matters stated on today that China’s economic recovery is falling short of expectations.

With the latest GDP figures coming in at 4.7%, well below the goal of 5%, the PBoC head emphasised the need for more effective macro policies.

Han Wenxiu, who serves as the deputy director overseeing the party’s financial and economic affairs, made these remarks during a press conference in Beijing. The briefing followed a crucial party meeting, dubbed the Third Plenum that concluded on yesterday.

Han stressed the importance of accelerating the use of special treasury bonds. He also advocated for a monetary policy approach that is ‘flexible, moderate, accurate, and effective.’

These statements come as China faces ongoing challenges in its post-pandemic economic recovery. The latest housing data shows a very sluggish return, with second-quarter home sales and property investment also weaker.

This could be a tough run for local miners as we move into the quieter summer period for China, where steel demand tends to wayne.

Iron ore futures are currently down -1.22% at US$104.20, still above their April lows below US$100, but still looking challenged.

Source: barchart.com

Sorry for the delay, readers. I’ve been pulled into meetings today.

I also published an article on Livewire, which you can read in full here.

Australian shares have retreated -1.16% so far, pushing the ASX 200 below 8000 points.

Banks, miners, and technology firms led the decline, with only 28 stocks in the index showing gains on the ASX 200, while 167 fell.

The downturn mirrored Wall Street’s performance, where both the Dow Jones and Nasdaq indices fell.

Netflix shares remained flat in after-hours trading despite reporting a 44% increase in June quarter profits to $2.15 billion and adding over 8 million new subscribers.

Commodity markets also struggled, with iron ore, oil, gold, and copper prices all dropping overnight. This weakness was reflected in the local market, where Newmont and Evolution Mining both shed around 3%, adding to a -1.75% loss in the broader materials sector.

Beyond Wall St, China’s economic slowdown has been in focus for our major miners, with its Third Plenum meeting this week starting on the sour note of second-quarter GDP growth of just 4.7%.

In company-specific news, banking regulator APRA announced a $500 million reduction in Westpac’s capital adequacy requirements. Meanwhile, Lifestyle Communities withdrew all forward guidance, citing uncertainty surrounding its home-building business.

This announcement sent the company’s shares plummeting 13 per cent to $9.62 and its 12-month performance down to -42%.

On the positive end of the market Droneshield jumped over 9% as the company sees extremely choppy trading following a short report that sent the stock reeling from its massive runup.

Good morning. Charlie here,

The ASX 200 fell -0.66% to 7,983.2. Expect it to fall further this morning after a tough session on Wall Street last night. Both the Dow Jones and Russell index saw big losses as both small caps and mega companies fell.

It seems profit-taking is the theme for the end of the week after a strong start to the week in small caps as traders rotated out of big tech into smaller caps.

It was a mixed showing on the Nasdaq, with some of the Mag 7 stocks gaining while others fell. Meta gained (+3.0%) and Nvidia (+2.6%), while Apple, Alphabet and Amazon all finished around 2% lower.

US bond yields and the US dollar both bounced from near-five-month lows despite no major shifts in market news.

For local markets, commodity prices fell sharply overnight, with iron ore, copper, oil, and precious metals all down. So, expect miners to struggle today.