• The ASX was down 1.25% on Friday, almost 6% for the month
  • Most sectors were in the red, but gold miners led from the front
  • Tech stocks dumped as Apple downgraded

 

The ASX 200 lost another 1.25% on Friday, taking its weekly loss to around 1.5% and monthly loss to 5.5%.

Stocks were sold across the board as the possibility of a worldwide recession led by the US increases.

Wall Street lost another 2% overnight as the strong US jobless data sparked fears of longer and higher rate hikes by the Fed.

In Europe, German inflation has hit a record 10%, driven by energy and food prices. Leading economic think tanks now agree that Germany will slip into a recession.

Closer to home, China shares listed on the Hong Kong exchange were the worst performing stocks in September, down by an average of 14%.

According to Bloomberg, these stocks are hovering around 0.6x book value, the cheapest ever.

Private sector credit in Australia was up 0.8% on month in August, accelerating from 0.7% in July, said the RBA today.

All borrowings on homes, personal and business jumped higher in August, signalling better times ahead for the Financial sector. The ASX Financials sector index however fell by 2% today in a broad brushed selloff.

Mining led all other sectors as the gold miners took charge.

Gold is now now trading at US$1,666 an ounce, and is largely being dictated by the movements in the US dollar.

“The US economy has two main trends with data points; The consumer remains resilient and the labor market refuses to break despite some layoff announcements,” said OANDA analyst Edward Moya.

“Fed messaging has been consistently shrugging off recession risks which implies they will remain aggressive with rate increase in November and December.

“The risks are still to the downside, but right now it seems gold has major support ahead of the $1600 level,” he added.

Carsales.com was the worst performing large cap today, down by 7%, on the back of sliding sentiment in tech stocks.

There’s a general bearish tone on tech stocks going into next week after Apple was delivered an extraordinarily rare downgrade by Bank of America, citing the risk of weaker product demand.

Shares of Apple have fallen sharply in 2022 by 22%, and more than 30% from their highs.

Looking ahead to tonight’s session on Wall Street, we’re looking at loads of date releases including the EU August unemployment rate and the EU September CPI.

Other date scheduled for tonight include: US August PCE deflator and UK Q2 GDP.

 

BIG CAP WINNERS

Swipe or scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort.

Wordpress Table Plugin

A2Milk (ASX:A2M) rose 1% after saying its Q1 FY23 sales are expected to be marginally ahead of forecast.

Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) is on a trading halt as the company raises $100m in institutional placement.

 

BIG CAP LOSERS

Swipe or scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort.

Wordpress Table Plugin

Salmon farmer Tassal (ASX:TGR) was down modestly by 0.3% after its Board unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the proposed takeover by Aquaculture Australia Company.