End of Day Report – Friday 2nd August - Murder on the Dance Floor - ASX drops 171 ahead of US Jobs

Market Updates

ASX 200 drops 172 points in the worst one-day fall in 16 months, to 7938 (-2.1%). For the week, we are relatively unchanged. All that record-breaking rally was undone. Big hits across the board as US markets led us lower and Japan in trouble. Banks were sold off aggressively, with CBA leading the sell off down 2.8% as ANZ fell only 1.8%, outperforming. MQG off 2.2% on news of a $1bn hybrid issue, compounding weakness. Insurers too in negative territory as yields fell. REITs too saw sellers as GMG reversed some gains from yesterday to close down 5.1%. Healthcare saw some pressure. CSL dropped 1.6%, with RMD results out this morning proving a short-term positive at least for a while, until a slight rethink and the stock closed down 1.8%. Industrials were also under pressure. WES fell 2.9% with QAN crash landing 4.1% as retail slipped lower too. LOV down 4.6% and JBH off 3.0% on a broker downgrade too. In the miners, it was a train wreck for uranium stocks, the fallout from the NXG capex increase, plus news from Kazatomprom, put a knife into the sector. It was not a great day, SLX caught the bug down 8.5%, DYL fell 19.2% and PDN off 10.8%. Big iron ore miners fared relatively better, with BHP down only 1.2% and RIO off 0.8%. Lithium stocks depressed, and the short sellers in PLS celebrated with a 6.5% drop. Oil and gas stocks are lower too. In corporate news, SQ2 put out a solid update with a BNPL boost from Afterpay, three years this week since the deal. On the economic front, nothing locally with US payrolls tonight. Asian markets poleaxed with Japan falling the most since 2020, down 5.2%, HK off 2.4%, and China down a more modest 0.8%. 10-year yields rising slightly to 4.08%.
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