Prices current around 5:20pm AEDT.
Live updates on the major ASX indices:
That's where we'll wrap things up. Thanks for joining us today.
Join us tomorrow morning to catch up on developments in global markets from overnight.
Thanks to everyone for sending your comments and questions into the blog. We really appreciate them.
Until tomorrow, take care of yourselves.
One day of data isn't enough. Let's see how you go tomorrow.
If you'd heard of Mark Carney but wanted to learn some more, this little piece explains who he is and why he'll be Canada's next prime minister.
Mr Carney was governor of Canada's central bank from 2008 to 2013, and then he was headhunted by the Brits to be governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020 (the first non-British person to be appointed to the role).
Among the best performers today were New Hope Corporation (up 13 cents, +3.24%, to $4.14), Resmed (up $1.08, +2.96%, to $37.52), and Origin Energy (up 14 cents, +1.37%, at $1037).
The losses among the worst performers were much bigger than the gains of the best performers.
Among the worst performers were Ramelius Resources -48 cents, -17.2%, at $2.31), Pro Medicus (-$26.74, -10.45%, to $229.19), and Qantas Airways (-77 cents, -8%, to $8.87).
Trading has closed for the day and the ASX200 index lost another 72.2 points today (-0.91%) to finish on 7,890 points.
There are two reasons for Qantas's spectacular share price nose dive today.
Firstly, it is trading ex-dividend, having recently announced its first one in years.
Those buying the shares from today on don't have access to that 26.4 cent per share payout.
But Qantas shares are down about 77 cents to $8.87, so there's another factor at play as well.
I suspect Qantas has been caught up in the general airline sell-off on US recession fears.
United and Delta were two of the biggest losers on the S&P 500, down 6.3% and 5.5% respectively on worries that US consumers will dramatically cut back on travel.
US tourism has also been very strong recently into Australia as the local currency has fallen against the greenback, so that could be dented if fewer Americans have the money, or are willing to spend the money, to travel.
National Australia Bank's monthly business survey is widely watched, including by the Reserve Bank.
The February data show businesses became a lot less optimistic, with confidence falling 6 points to -1, only slightly better than they were in December.
That's despite a 1-point improvement in business conditions, to +4.
Trading and employment both remain positive, but profitability remains under pressure at -1, as consumer price inflation eases but input cost pressures remain elevated.
"Purchase cost growth rose from 1.1% to 1.5% in quarterly equivalent terms," noted NAB's economists.
"However, labour cost growth eased from 1.7% to 1.5%, which suggests that wage price pressures continue to ease.
"Final product price growth eased from 0.8% to 0.5% in quarterly equivalent terms, while retail price inflation was unchanged at 1.0%."
Capacity utilisation also continued to edge down, in a sign that the economy's ability to supply goods and services in most sector might be closer to matching demand.
Forward orders also remained negative (-3), pointing to a subdued outlook.
"Activity measures in the survey continue to point to below average growth, and alongside this input cost pressures are a step above output price growth pointing to the ongoing challenges in the business sector even though economic activity showed some improvement in H2 2024," concluded the NAB economics team.
Tony Sycamore from IG has circulated his afternoon market report that explains what he's been seeing today.
He says the ASX200 plunged 143 points (1.80%) to an intraday low of 7818.3 in early trading today before dip buyers emerged, encouraged by a rebound in US equity futures.
"At this morning’s low, the ASX200 had fallen almost 9% below its mid-February 8615 high. A pullback of this magnitude seemed unimaginable just four weeks ago. However, as circumstances have evolved, so to has the market's response," he says.
"Trump’s tariffs have been implemented more quickly and broadly than anticipated.
"Most bank analysts had expected a more gradual increase in tariffs on China and did not anticipate tariffs on Mexico and Canada. Although the tariffs on Mexico and Canada may be temporary, reciprocal tariffs across US trading partners are now a given."
Mr Sycamore says the market turmoil today was further fulled by comments from President Trump in a Fox News interview.
"When asked about the potential for a recession, Trump did not dismiss the possibility, saying, 'I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big'," he says.
His comments came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned that the US economy might face a "detox period" for re-balancing.
He notes that, according to US investment bank Goldman Sachs, the chance of a US recession over the next 12 months has increased from 15% to 20%.
"If President Trump and Co continue in the manner they have started, it won't be long until it's a coin toss - closer to 50%," he says.
Turning to Australia's sharemarket, he says tech stocks were hit hard today, taking their lead from heavy falls for the Nasdaq on Wall Street overnight.
DroneShield dived 11.48% to $0.90, Life360 plummeted 8.30% to $21.09, Block, the owner of AfterPay, fell 6.5% to $88.03, and Technology One decreased by 6% to $27.15.
He says despite a strong 4% increase in the Westpac Consumer Sentiment Index for March, reaching 95.9 - its highest level in three years thanks to the RBA's rate cut last month, consumer-facing stocks were friendless.
Baby Bunting dropped 7.16% to $1.75, Temple and Webster fell 4.15% to $16.16, Kogan declined 3.78% to $4.58, and JB Hi-Fi slipped 2.62% lower to $88.95
He says the ASX200 Financial Sector is set to record its sixth straight session of falls. At today's low point, it had fallen 13% below its mid-February peak.
Leading the downturn, Macquarie fell 2.62% to $202.82, AMP lost 2.31% to $1.27, Bendigo Bank dropped 1.25% to $10.24, and CBA decreased by 0.54% to $147.31. In contrast, NAB gained 0.12% to $34.11, Westpac rose 0.89% to $30.67, and ANZ added 1.14% to $29.04.
He says the energy sector has gained despite the price of crude oil trading below $66, straining under the weight of US tariff uncertainty, US growth concerns, the potential lifting of US sanctions on Russia, and OPEC+ opting to increase output.
Woodside rose 1.22% to $23.19, Santos added 0.9% to $6.16, and Beach Energy rose 0.54% to $1.40.
Hi Andy,
AUSTAL was placed in a trading halt before the market opened this morning.
But within the last hour it's published three market announcements that relate to that trading halt:
You can find the announcements in this link: