The US market fell last night with tech stocks hit very hard, and the negative sentiment haunted our markets today. The NASDAQ fell 4.43% to 7,108, and has now moved more than 10% off its highs – so officially a correction.
The fear index was up to its recent highs again, at 25.23
And the Dow Jones fell 2.41% to 24,583. Actually most of the news was old news, with the expectations of a higher US interest rate and fall out from the Trade wars. But sentiment went negative again.
So no surprise the local market was hard hit in choppy trading today. The banks felt the pain. For example, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank fell 2.57% to 9.85,
Suncorp dropped 1.95% to 13.61
and Bank of Queensland dropped 5.32% to 9.43.
Falls were seen across the sector, with CBA down 1.97% to 65.54.
National Australia Bank down 2.21% to 24.61
ANZ down 2.24% to 24.88
And Westpac down 2.06% to 25.96.
Macquarie, with its international exposure fell 2.84% to 110.46
And the ASX Financials fell 3.02% to 5,534.
The Aussie ended at 70.74 against the US dollar, at the low end of the range and
The ASX 100 ended down 2.82% at 4,661.
The local fear index was up again to recent highs
But AMP was hit hard, thanks to their announcement today of further divestments. Timing is everything! “AMP announced the successful completion of its portfolio review including an agreement to divest its Australian and New Zealand wealth protection and mature businesses (AMP Life) and reinsure New Zealand retail wealth protection for total proceeds of A$3.45 billion”.
Tomorrow will be another day, will prices bounce or fall further?
