Oil and mining stocks lead sharp selloff as global commodities plunge
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The news: Oil and mining companies weighed on the market in morning trade amid growing concerns of an escalating global trade war, as China retaliated against new US tariffs with a 34% duty on all US imports.
The numbers: Energy (-7.7%) and materials (-5.6%) were the worst performing sectors at 11:50am AEDT, as the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 4.3%, paring an early drop of around 6%.
Oil and gas explorers Ampol (-11%) and Santos (10.6%) led declines, with rivals Karoon Energy (-8.2%), Woodside Energy (-7.3) and Beach Energy (-6.8%) also tumbling.
Global benchmarks Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate were both down around 2.5% to USD64 and USD60.46 respectively.
Elsewhere in the sector, uranium trio Paladin Energy (-11.2%), Deep Yellow (-10.9%) and Boss Energy (-8.9%) tanked, with the US tariffs expected to slow purchases of the nuclear fuel.
Among the miners, iron ore giants Fortescue (-7.7%), BHP (-6.8%) and Rio Tinto (-4.9%) all saw sizeable losses, as iron ore futures fell 2.1% to USD98.50 per tonne on the Singapore Exchange.
Diversified miners Mineral Resources (-10.2%) and South32 (-8.4%), and Canada-headquartered copper producer Capstone Copper (-12.4%) also dived.
Gold miners were also down, as spot gold settled at around USD3,043 per ounce, having hit a new record above USD3,160 an ounce last week on the back of the new US tariffs. Evolution Mining (-7.9%), Perseus Mining (-7.4%) and Newmont Corporation were among the worst hit.
