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Topic:Stock Market
A fall on Wall Street is likely to send Australian stocks lower, as investors exercised caution ahead of a monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve, while gauging the potential impact of President Donald Trump's tariff policies.
We'll bring you the latest on what's happening on the markets throughout the day in our live blog.
Disclaimer: this blog is not intended as investment advice.
By Samuel Yang
Price current around 7:50am AEDT
Live updates on the major ASX indices:
By Samuel Yang
Credit reporting agency, CreditorWatch, has released the February results for its Business Risk Index, showing Australian businesses remain under pressure across key metrics.
Cost increases and household cost-of-living pressures continue to impact the hospitality sector, with closures hitting a record high of 9.3% – that's one in 11 businesses – in the 12 months to February 2025, up from 7.1% in the 12 months to February 2024.
The business closures rate comprises voluntary and involuntary administrations, ASIC strike offs, deregistrations of solvent businesses and voluntary closures.
The report says the food and beverage services sector has struggled under cost pressures from food price increases, energy and insurance price rises, wage increases and higher rents.
Businesses in CBDs have also experienced a drop in trade as more people work from home. At the same time, their customers have experienced cost-of-living pressures and reduced discretionary spending.
“The expected slowdown in economic growth from the widespread US tariff regime will, unfortunately but inevitably, result in higher insolvencies," CreditorWatch CEO Patrick Coghlan said.
"After a tough couple of years managing higher inflation, interest rate increases and lower demand, I certainly hope Australia businesses are spared the worst of it.
“We encourage businesses to take steps now to manage that risk, whether it is reviewing credit policies, running a portfolio health check or monitoring customers more closely.”
Meanwhile, insolvencies rose in February after having dipped in December and January to below the November high. They continue to trend strongly upward, the report says.
CreditorWatch's chief economist, Ivan Colhoun said “given the economic and cost pressures and continuing high levels of accumulated ATO tax debt, it’s too early to expect the level of insolvencies to reduce much in the period immediately ahead”.
By Samuel Yang
US stocks fell on Tuesday, snapping a two-session streak of gains.
The Fed will release its latest policy statement at 5am AEDT Thursday, where the central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged, along with its updated summary of economic projections (SEP).
Markets are currently pricing in about 60 basis points of cuts from the Fed this year, although several US central bank officials have cautioned against the Fed moving too quickly on rates and said they would wait to see the impact of tariffs in economic data before making any policy shifts.
"There's just great uncertainty here about the tariffs, how extensive they are going to be, how that's going to economically impact us, how much the Fed might ease eventually and the economy in general," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York.
"There is a lot of confusion out there, and when there's confusion, when there isn't a real opportunity for stocks to go up and for companies to expand and make more money, there's fear."
Adding to inflation concerns, US import prices unexpectedly rose in February amid higher costs for consumer goods.
Stocks had recently shown some signs of stabilising after several weeks of declines that sent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq down more than 10% from their recent highs, also known as correction territory.
The blue-chip Dow is slightly more than 2% away from reaching correction levels.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump agreed to seek a limited 30-day ceasefire against energy and infrastructure targets in Ukraine, while talks aimed at advancing toward a broader peace plan will begin "immediately," the White House said.
Alphabet fell after the company said it would buy Wiz for about $US32 billion in its biggest deal as the Google parent doubles down on cybersecurity.
Nvidia shares declined. The company is expected to reveal details of its latest AI chip at its annual software developer conference.
Tesla slumped after brokerage RBC slashed its price target on the EV maker's stock to $US120 from $US320, citing reduced expectations for its full self-driving pricing and robotaxi market share. Its shares are now down nearly 45% on the year.
Reflecting the defensive tone, investors moved to safe-haven assets, with gold trading at a record high, after crossing $3,000 per ounce for the first time last week.
By Samuel Yang
Good morning and welcome to our Wednesday live blog, where we'll bring you the latest price action and news on the ASX and beyond.
A tumble on Wall Street overnight sets the tone for local market action today.
The Dow Jones index dropped 0.6 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 1.1 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.7 per cent.
ASX futures were down 52 points or 0.6 per cent to 7,808 at 7:00am AEDT.
At the same time, the Australian dollar was down 0.3 per cent to 63.92 US cents.
Brent crude oil was down 0.8 per cent, trading at $US70.50 a barrel.
Spot gold gained 1.1 per cent to $US3,034.07.
Iron ore lost 0.2 per cent to $US101.80 a tonne.
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
