ASX falls; gold breaks through $US4000 per ounce barries

The Australian sharemarket dipped on Wednesday, weighed down by a fall in retail and IT stocks that tracked a weaker session in New York. Investors also took profits from gold miners as the price of bullion crept higher.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index fell more than 30 points in early trading before pulling back in the afternoon to be down 6.3 points, to 8950.5 as of 2.02pm AEDT, despite six out of the 11 sectors in the green.

Wall Street traders sent stocks lower after a series of all-time highs spurred calls for a breather amid signs of buyer exhaustion. The ebullience, driven by investor enthusiasm about AI, gave way to concerns about the stock market’s rally being excessive, following the S&P 500’s $16 trillion surge from its April lows.

Technology giants weighed, following a report Oracle’s cloud margins were lower than many had estimated. Tesla fell more than 4 per cent after introducing new versions of its top-selling models priced at under $US40,000.

“Fears about overinvestment, skinnier margins, and underwhelming return on investment on artificial intelligence captured the narrative overnight,” said Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda.

“While a legitimate and ever-present risk, there was no fresh information that came to light overnight to really threaten the bull market.”

On the ASX, Bunnings owner Wesfarmers led the consumer discretionary sector lower after falling 2.3 per cent. JB Hi-Fi dropped 1.9 per cent, Myer 2.6 per cent, Eagers Automotive 2 per cent, Harvey Norman 1.3 per cent, and Aristocrat 1.8 per cent.

Tech stocks also fell, with Life360 sinking 3.3 per cent, NextDC 1.8 per cent, and Xero 1.7 per cent, while WiseTech came off 0.8 per cent.

Gold cracked a fresh record after briefly breaking through $US4000 an ounce, as the US shutdown dragged on and a wobble in tech stocks reinforced investor appetite for other assets. But investors took profits from ASX gold miners, with Northern Star and Ramelius both down 1 per cent, Vault Minerals 3.1 per cent, Perseus 1.9 per cent, Westgold 1.5 per cent, and Greatland 1.4 per cent.

Stocks on the move

James Hardie surged 10.5 per cent on the back of reporting preliminary net sales for the second quarter that beat the average analyst estimate. The dual-listed building materials company also jumped 8.1 per cent in New York.

Magellan Financial gained 1.2 per cent after reporting that assets under management lifted $600 million during the September quarter.

Apiam Animal Health jumped 8.1 per cent on news that private equity firm Adamantem has completed its due diligence, after it lobbed a non-binding indicative offer for the ASX-listed rural veterinary service provider in August.

DroneShield gained 5.6 per cent after announcing it had made software improvements that would allow its systems to detect and respond to drones faster and more accurately.

Healius fell 2.2 per cent despite poaching BIS Industries CFO Andrew Thomson to replace the outgoing Steve Humphries.

Mesoblast rallied another 10.5 per cent one day after reporting that US revenues for Ryoncil, its therapy to treat children for complications that could occur during bone marrow transplants, had increased by 66 per cent in the September quarter.

NRW Holdings rose 2.8 per cent after the construction and mining contractor upgraded its full-year guidance and announced the completion of its $200 million acquisition of Sydney-based electrical and technology contractor Fredon Industries.

And Catalyst Metals slumped 4.5 per cent after reporting that its September gold production came in lower than expected.