ASX has worst day in five months; Cettire plunges
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The news: The Australian sharemarket had its worst day since September 2024 as investors reacted to the Trump administration’s announcement of tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada.
The benchmark ASX 200 fell 1.79% to 8,379.4, with all 11 sectors finishing in red. The Australian dollar, meanwhile, hit its lowest level (60.9 US cents) since 2020 as the US dollar rose on tariff news.
Biggest fallers:
- Westgold Resources (-12.4%) — Slashed its full-year production guidance and hiked its costs forecast, after slower-than-expected ramp ups at its Beta Hunt and Bluebird-South Junction mines in Western Australia.
- Magellan Financial Group (-9.71%) — Extended its recent selloff after the fund manager was hit by another downgrade, this time by UBS, following the exit of its long-serving head of investments and infrastructure lead Gerald Stack.
- Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (-7.42%) — Warned of increased costs under the new tariffs imposed by the US on Canada, Mexico and China.
Stocks impacted by tariffs:
- Cettire (-18.97%) — Announced that it had been assessing the changes to US tariffs, which have closed the ‘de minimis’ exemption for imports from China, Mexico and Canada.
- Iron ore — Champion Iron (-4.49%), Fortescue (-4.39%), Rio Tinto (-2.12%) and BHP (-1.78%) all fell as the potential loss of export driven demand in China could hurt iron ore demand.
- Oil producers — Woodside Energy (-0.53%), Karoon Energy (-1.58%), Beach Energy (-0.98%) all fell, while Ampol rose 0.24%, as the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose as much as 3.7% to USD75.18 a barrel.
- BlueScope (ended flat) — Resisted the broader selloff as Citi analysts upgraded the stock to ‘buy’, expecting tailwinds from expected steel output cuts in China, steel import tariffs and expanded infrastructure spend in the US.
- Gold — Ramelius Resources (2.02%), Regis Resources (1.96%), Capricorn Metals (1.94%) and Emerald Resources (0.23%) were among the only 16 stocks in the ASX 200 that rose today.
Other news:
- ASX (-2.41%) — ASIC has opened an investigation into whether the ASX’s CHESS outage in December breached the Corporations Act.
- Argo (-0.11%) — Reported a 3.2% drop in half-year profit due to losses from option writing and trading activities, and lower income from other activities. However, it will pay a slightly higher interim dividend of 17 cents a share.
- Novonix (ended flat) — Welcomed a preliminary determination by the International Trade Commission that China suppressed the establishment of a domestic graphite industry in the US by exporting artificially cheap graphite.
- Regis Resources (1.96%) — Has established a $300 million revolving credit facility for additional flexibility and liquidity.
People moves:
- Resolute Mining (-9.64%) — Announced that its chief executive Terry Holohan will leave the company with immediate effect, with current acting CEO Chris Eger named as his permanent replacement.
- Alpha HPA (-1.55%) — Appointed chief operations officer Rob Williamson as its new managing director. Its current MD, Rimas Kairaitis, has been moved to the role of chief commercial officer.
- Fletcher Building (-0.77%) — Has named industry veteran Peter Crowley as its new chair with immediate effect.
The Australian dollar is buying 61.23 US cents.
What’s ahead: Overnight will see the latest US manufacturing purchasing managers’ index figures.
Nufarm will hold its annual general meeting on Tuesday.
