ASX opens lower as CSL tumbles 10% on major workforce cuts
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More news: Australian shares lowered at the open as biotech giant CSL tanked 10% after announcing plans to cut 15% of its workforce and demerge its influenza vaccine company Seqirus.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 61.7 points, or 0.69%, to 8,897.6 at 10:40am AEST. Eight of the 11 sectoral indices were in negative territory.
CSL's update saw its shares drop 10.8% and sent the wider healthcare sector down 5.2%.
Investment manager HMC Capital (-9.1%), plumbing supplies maker Reliance Worldwide (-8.3%), and metal recycling firm Sims (-3.7%) also saw sharp selloffs after posting financial results this morning.
Meanwhile, Monadelphous (+4.9%), Seek (+4.4%), Centuria Capital (+3.8%) and Challenger (+2.9%) were all higher after reporting their full-year earnings.
Australian shares to drop as investors eye heavyweight earnings
The news: Australian shares are set to open lower this morning after US stocks ended roughly flat overnight, as local traders await financial results from market giants BHP, CSL and Woodside Energy.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEST:
- ASX futures: down 24 points, or 0.3%, to 8,873 points
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.08%, S&P 500 down 0.01% and Nasdaq up 0.03%
- Europe: CAC 40 down 0.50%, DAX down 0.18% and FTSE 100 up 0.21%
- Spot gold: down 0.10% to USD3,333 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 0.15% to USD66.50/bbl and US WTI up 0.81% to USD63.31/bbl
- AUD: down 0.14% to 65.00 US cents
- Bitcoin: down 0.81% to USD116,532.
The context: Wall Street's main indices ended barely changed as investors braced for a slate of second-quarter earnings reports due later this week, including from major retail companies Walmart, Home Depot and Target.
Stocks wavered as US President Donald Trump pledged to pursue a trilateral meeting with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky that he said could end the war.
Traders are also looking ahead to the annual Economic Policy Symposium, which begins on Friday AEST, where Fed chair Jerome Powell is due to announce the central bank's new policy framework.
In the local market, BHP, CSL, Woodside, HUB24 and Challenger are among those due to report this morning.
