The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) fell by 44.7 points this morning (3 September), trading at 8,858.9 points as at 10.10am AEST.
The index has lost 1.13% over the past five days, with 10 sectors performing lower in line with the S&P/ASX 200 index, including the materials section which is down 0.17%.
September stock worries set in early with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.55%, the S&P 500 falling 0.69% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite sliding nearly 1% on Tuesday.
The imposition of tariffs by the US President Donald Trump have been ruled illegal by the US Federal Appeals court and is now likely to set up a showdown in the powerful supreme court in the United States.
Concerns around an overvalued stock market and coming into September, historically the worst months for stocks on factors that include a lack of news flow, profit-taking and seasonality are typically catalysts for a market correction.
Demand for bonds and gold, particularly government issued debt, spiked during trade as investors moved into asset classes to observe reduced risk.
Gold is trading at US$3,536 ($5,426) per ounce, marking an all-time high for the commodity and 12 month gain of 41.45%.
According to reporting by CNBC, bond yields rose sharply in response with the 10-year Treasury above 4.25% and the 30-year near 5%.
Earlier, markets in Europe had a weaker session as London’s FTSE fell and Germany’s DAX declined.
The Australian dollar is weaker against the major currencies and is buying US$0.65.
WTI Crude oil is selling for US$65.57 per barrel while Brent oil is higher at US$69.11 per barrel.
Iron ore is trading at US$102.53 and one bitcoin is worth US$111,446 going into the Asian trading day.
The S&P/ASX200 is Australia’s leading share market index and contains the top 200 ASX-listed companies in terms of market capitalisation, and accounts for about 80% of the country’s equity market.
The index is designed to measure the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the ASX by float-adjusted market capitalisation.
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: iStock
