Yahoo Finance ASX finishes down as banks drag
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 (^AXJO) has finished in the red, despite repairing most of the damage done throughout the day.
The ASX200 finished 0.42 per cent lower at 5,384.60 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index (^AORD) also finished down 0.24 per cent at 5,464.80 points.
Share markets staged a late rally, but financial stocks acted as a dead weight, with all four major banks finishing lower on Wednesday.
What happened at midday?
The ASX200 fell further in midday trade, down 0.89 per cent to 5,358/80 at 12:02pm AEST.
The All Ordinaries also sunk lower, down 0.75 per cent to 5,436.80 per cent.
The latest retail spending figures shows spending rose 8.5 per cent in March, higher than market predictions. That took spending to $30.11 billion after a 0.6 per cent lift in February.
Experts had predicted spending would rise 8.0 per cent.
What happened this morning?
The ASX200 slipped at the open after US markets softened overnight, falling 0.26 per cent to 5,392.90 points at 10:10 am AEST.
The All Ordinaries also slid 0.29 per cent to 5,462.0 points.
This morning’s dip came ahead of fresh figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on retail trade and lending indicators.
What happened last night?
While Wall Street’s main indexes finished in the green thanks to an oil price and healthcare stocks rally, they retracted after US Federal Reserve vice chair Richard Clarida issued gloomy comments about the American economy.
“We’re living through the most severe contraction in activity and surge in unemployment that we’ve seen in our lifetimes,” Clarida said in an interview with CNBC.
US investors are now monitoring the reopening of some states to see whether the virus spreads and lockdowns are reinstated.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 133.33 points, or 0.56 per cent, to 23,883.09, the S&P 500 gained 25.7 points, or 0.90 per cent, to 2868.44 and the Nasdaq Composite added 98.41 points, or 1.13 per cent, to 8809.12.
With AAP.
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