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ASX declines as big miners and banks retreat
By Emma Koehn
Your five-minute guide to the trading day and how the experts saw it.
The numbers
The S&P/ASX200 finished Monday’s session 0.1 per cent lower, closing at 7306.4, as mining shares weighed on the local bourse.
Wall Street closed out another winning week on Friday.Credit: AP
The lifters
Whitehaven Coal finished the day ahead by 3.1 per cent to $7.23, Woodside rose 2.3 per cent to $37.25, while platform sites Carsales, REA Group and Seek also advanced.
The laggards
Pilbara Minerals dropped 5.8 per cent to $4.59, South 32 lost 2.6 per cent to $3.72 and Rio Tinto was 1.31 per cent lower at $115.25.
The lowdown
Australian shares see-sawed during Monday’s session, initially following Wall Street higher but retreating throughout the day as investors held their collective breath ahead of important economic data this week.
The S&P/ASX200 finished the session down 0.1 per cent to 7306.4 thanks to the weight of the mining sector, which dropped by 1.4 per cent for the session, and consumer staples, which retreated by 0.3 per cent.
The performance of blue-chip stocks held the index back throughout the afternoon, with the nation’s biggest companies finishing lower: BHP declined by 1.5 per cent to $44.34, CSL was 0.3 per cent weaker to $266.27 and the big four banks were sluggish and all finished lower.
The materials sector was down on Monday.Credit: Erin Jonasson
The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite index also lost ground when they opened on Monday, and Australian shares failed to maintain any momentum from early gains.
The US Fed meets on Wednesday, while Australian consumer price index data released later this week should give local investors more clues about the path of interest rates. Investors will be looking for an insight into the path of rates after stronger-than-expected local labour force data released last week.
Morgan Stanley analysts said local inflation data would be the most important thing for investors.
“In core terms ... we forecast quarterly inflation at 1.2 per cent [for the quarter], the same rate as the prior quarter, with annual inflation of 6.1 per cent. This is above the RBA’s core forecast, and we think a print in line with our expectations would see the RBA hike in August,” Chris Nicoll said in a note to clients.
The Australian dollar was 0.1 per cent stronger to 67.3 US cents at the 4.15pm market close.
Quote of the day
“Soon we shall bid adieu to the [T]witter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” That’s billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk, who told followers over the weekend he intends to change the logo of the social media platform from a bird to an “X”.
Tweet of the day
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The group’s “self-screening project” is aiming to develop an unmanned, self-service checkpoint to scan passengers and carry-on luggage. The company’s shares finished the day up 9.5 per cent to 11.5¢ a share.
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