Yahoo Finance ASX200 repairs some of the losses to finish flat
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 (^AXJO) has finished flat - just 0.0019 per cent lower on Wednesday after repairing most of the day’s losses. That brings it to 5,221.20 points.
The broader All Ordinaries index (^AORD) also finished in the red, down 0.047 per cent at 5,276.10 points.
The performance comes amid new figures showing retail spending surged 8.2 per cent in March as Aussies stockpiled on groceries and office supplies ahead of the nation-wide shutdown.
Retail turnover was up $30.04 billion with turnover doubling for items like toilet paper, flour, rice and pasta. Canned food, cleaning products and medicine also saw turnover increase by more than 50 per cent.
What happened at midday?
The ASX200 repaired some of its morning losses in midday trade on Wednesday, down 0.59 per cent at 12:13pm AEST.
That brought it to a 5,190.50 fall from Tuesday’s close.
The All Ordinaries also repaired some of the damage, although is still in the red. It’s down 0.59 per cent or 5,247.50 points.
What happened this morning?
The ASX200 opened in the red following heavy losses on Wall Street overnight and an oil price in free fall.
It was down 1.95 per cent to 5,119.70 points at 10:22am AEST.
The All Ordinaries also fell 2.06 per cent to 5,170.10 points.
This morning’s dip comes as brent crude fell -24.4 per cent to just $US19.34 a barrel.
This week has been a sea of poor economic indicators, with fresh ABS data released on Tuesday revealing the number of Aussies in a job has fallen by 6.0 per cent since the coronavirus crisis. That figure is significantly higher among young Australians.
The ASX200 finished 2.45 per cent lower on Tuesday.
What happened overnight?
US shares have tumbled for a second straight day as a collapse in US oil prices and glum forecasts by companies worsened fears of a deep economic downturn.
All 11 S&P 500 sector indexes fell 1.6 per cent or more on Tuesday, with energy sliding for the seventh time in eight sessions a day after the WTI contract crashed below zero as oil traders ran out of storage for May deliveries.
During Tuesday's session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.67 per cent to end at 23,018.88 points, while the S&P 500 lost 3.07 per cent to 2,736.57.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.48 per cent to 8,263.23.
With AAP.
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