ASX set to fall as Wall Street slumps on inflation report; Anthropic targets $2 trillion valuation

Résumé détaillé

US stocks are falling after a report showed inflation was worse across the country last month than economists expected.

The Australian sharemarket edged up in Wednesday’s session, erasing early losses and shrugging off falls on Wall Street, where inflation figures that were hotter than expected spooked investors.

The S&P/ASX 200 finished up 24.20 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 9153.20 as investors sought out technology shares and waded back into BHP, pushing the mining sector back into the green after it dragged down the market in the morning. The yo-yo day came after the ASX jumped 1.1 per cent on Tuesday. The Australian dollar rose 0.2 per cent to US68.77¢.

The market rebound came despite data that showed Australian home loans posted a record drop in the third quarter, underscoring the erosion of borrowing demand in response to the Reserve Bank’s aggressive interest rate increases to control inflation. The value of new home loans fell 15.5 per cent in the three months through September – almost double economists’ forecast and the biggest quarterly decline since the series began in 2002, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.

Materials stocks pared their morning losses as investors started piling back into BHP, sending the world’s largest miner from a 1.8 per cent fall to a rise of 0.9 per cent. Rio Tinto crept back up to finish 0.7 per cent higher, while gold miners were mixed, following sharp falls in early trade after the US inflation data. Northern Star Resources rose 0.4 per cent and Evolution Mining rose 1.3 per cent as gold prices turned higher, but Newmont was still down 2.5 per cent.

Financial stocks were mixed. Commonwealth Bank gave up its early gains to finish the session down by 1.2 per cent. Australia’s biggest bank said its first-quarter profit climbed 8 per cent to $2.8 billion as growth in loans to businesses offset struggles in mortgages during the housing slump. National Australia Bank – the country’s biggest business lender – dropped 1.5 per cent. Westpac inched up 0.1 per cent and ANZ Bank gained 1.4 per cent.

Macquarie Group fell 0.9 per cent.

Tech stocks…

Début de l'article, extrait de The Sydney Morning Herald. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.