We might call it a day there for another week of our business blog.
The markets will be watching with interest as US President Donald Trump makes a big announcement on the next Federal Reserve chair in the coming hours.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend.
Try to stay cool -- and safe -- if you're in one of Australia's hot spots.
Here are the worst performers on the ASX on Friday.
Mining development company Ioneer, which specialises in the supply of lithium and boron, lost 26.19%, followed by Star Entertainment (15.6%) and Bougainville Copper (14.42%).
A look at the sector summary gives a perfect snapshot of what happened during Friday's trading on the ASX.
The best performers were shares in Academic Services with a jump of almost 6 per cent.
And at the other end of scale was a drop of more than 4 per cent for Basic Materials on a day that gold, silver and other precious metals took a hit.
Even though Friday wasn't a vintage day on the ASX, the market responded positively to the news that Nine Entertainment was selling its radio stations.
It offloaded the likes of 2GB and 3AW to Laundy Family Office for a cut-price $56 million.
Nine was among the top movers on Friday with its share price increasing by 5.05%.
It wasn't a day to remember for the ASX 200 to end another week and complete the first month of the year.
The market finished down by 58 points, or 0.6%, to finish at 8,869.
Friday began well enough, with the ASX ralling 0.49% in early trade before slumping in the afternoon.
We saw significant falls in precious metals with platinum and copper, in addition to gold and silver, taking a tumble.
Bitcoin also had a day to forget.
And the Australian dollar also fell, although it's hovering right around the 70 cent mark to the greenback.
Prices current at around 4.30pm AEDT
It's been backed by President Trump and Gina Rinehart - but where is the Arafura mine?
Arafura's rare earths project in the NT has received hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding, and was central to a deal inked in the United States last year, but it's yet to get off the ground.
The company previously said it could reach a final investment decision for the mine by 2025, then early 2026, and has now pushed that timeline back again.
You can read more on this story here:
Prices current at around 3.30pm AEDT.
You can see live values here:
The fall of the ASX today has been mirrored in early Asian trade.
Stocks in Asia slumped while the US dollar and bond yields shot up on Friday.
That was after US President Donald Trump said he had firmed up his choice for new Federal Reserve boss, with reports zeroing in on Kevin Warsh as the likely pick.
While Warsh, a former Fed governor, is seen as an advocate of lower interest rates, he is also considered to be one of the less radical choices among the various names that have been raised.
He is also perhaps more cautious on heavy monetary stimulus than others.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan tumbled as much as 1.3%, extending the previous day's declines with the biggest one-day slump of the past month.
Asian stocks were led lower by declines in China, with a gauge of Chinese companies with listings in Hong Kong off 2.1%.
MSCI's broadest gauge of equities outside of Japan remains on track for its best monthly performance in more than three years. In Tokyo, the Nikkei slipped 0.1%.
Stocks in Jakarta rallied 1% after the head of Indonesia's stock exchange resigned, taking responsibility for a selloff triggered by a warning of a potential downgrade from index provider MSCI.
It was the country's biggest stock rout since the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury bond was last up 4.0 basis points at 4.265%.
Fed funds futures are pricing an implied 86.6% probability that the US central bank will hold steady on rates at its next two-day meeting on March 18, compared with a 87.5% chance a day earlier, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
With reporting by Reuters
Remember when AstraZeneca was front and centre in the news?
Without wanting to relive the unpleasantness of the pandemic, the British-Swedish multinational company provided one of the vaccines when COVID-19 reared its ugly head from 2020 onwards.
Now there's news that AstraZeneca will license experimental drugs for obesity and weight-related conditions from CSPC Pharmaceutical Group and collaborate on additional projects.
It is paying $US1.2 billion upfront and up to $US17.3 billion more if development and sales milestones are met, the Chinese drugmaker said on Friday.
The deal is the latest tie-up between the two pharmaceutical giants, following collaboration in areas such as artificial intelligence.
It expands AstraZeneca's investment in the growing Chinese obesity market led by Western rivals.
The British-Swedish drugmaker has also licensed an experimental weight-loss pill from China's EccoGene.
CSPC shares were down about 12% in Hong Kong following the announcement.
"This reflects the classic 'buy the rumour, sell the news' phenomenon," said Tony Ren, head of Asia healthcare research at Macquarie Capital, adding that investors seemed to be offloading the stock after its 26% surge since January 2.
The agreement covers the development, manufacturing and commercialisation of the candidates. AstraZeneca has been granted a global licence, excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China.
AstraZeneca will also collaborate on four additional new programmes with CSPC, using CSPC's proprietary platforms for sustained-release delivery technology and AI-driven peptide drug discovery.
A spokesperson for AstraZeneca said in a statement the new CSPC Pharmaceutical deal was in addition to a previous $US15 billion investment in China that it announced on Thursday.
With reporting by Reuters