Apple drives Wall Street to record high; ASX set to slip
Staff writers
Updated ,first published
The Australian sharemarket has edged lower to start the week as uncertainty over the Iran war lingers, while Tuesday’s Reserve Bank interest rates decision is also in focus for investors.
The S&P/ASX 200 was 16.9 points, or 0.2 per cent lower to 8712.9, with five of 11 industry sectors in positive territory, led by technology stocks. The main game this week is the upcoming call on interest rates by the RBA, with the central bank tipped to announce another hike.
National Australia Bank slumped 3.8 per cent after its first-half cash earnings came in below expectations, falling 26.3 per cent in annual terms, to $2.6 billion, weighed down by a $949 billion hit to profit due to changes in the bank’s accounting policies on software. Excluding the hit from these accounting changes, the bank said cash earnings rose 2.3 per cent compared with the September half.
Chief executive Andrew Irvine said the economic backdrop was more volatile because of geopolitical tensions, and the bank had raised its provisions for bad debts. Commonwealth Bank dipped 0.2 per cent, Westpac slid 0.5 per cent while ANZ Bank was 0.3 per cent higher in early trade.
The main uncertainty for the global economy is where oil prices are heading because of the Iran war. President Donald Trump said on Monday (AEST) that the US would begin guiding neutral ships out through the Strait of Hormuz and signalled progress on talks with Iran to end the war now in its 10th week. Oil prices edged lower in response in early Asian trade, with Brent, the international standard, down 0.4 per cent to $US107.79 ($149.54) per barrel while US oil lost 0.5 per cent to $US101.41 at 9.25am AEST.
The slide in oil prices sent local energy stocks lower in early trade with Woodside Energy losing 1.7 per cent while Santos retreated 0.6 per cent. Refiners Ampol and Viva Energy each lost 0.4 per cent.
Mining stocks are mixed with Rio Tinto dipping 0.3 per cent and BHP 0.1 per cent but fellow iron ore heavyweight Fortescue added 0.3 per cent. Gold stocks advanced, with Northern Star up 0.2 per cent and Evolution Mining 1.2 per cent higher.
Technology stocks are higher, with tracking app Life360 jumping 6.6 per cent, while Xero and Technology One each advanced 1.3 per cent. WiseTech shed 1.1 per cent in early trade.
Southern Cross Media was 0.8 per cent higher after chair Heith Mackay-Cruise announced his intention to resign on Monday morning after an influential shareholder called for him and two other directors to step down on Friday. Teresa Dyson, a director from Kerry Stokes’ old publishing empire Seven West Media, will be the new chair of the radio network that absorbed the media mogul’s former TV and publishing company in January. The merger, which had been sold as a merger of equals, quickly began to resemble a takeover by Southern Cross after Mackay-Cruise ousted a number of Seven-aligned senior staff and became executive chairman. That period is now ending.
The Australian dollar was 0.1 per cent higher to US72.10¢ at 10.35am AEST.
US stock market set more records on Friday after Apple and others joined the list of companies delivering fatter profits for the start of the year than analysts expected.
Apple led the way after the iPhone seller reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Because it’s one of Wall Street’s biggest stocks in terms of overall size, Apple’s rally of 3.3 per cent was by far the strongest force lifting the S&P 500.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.3 per cent to its latest all-time high and closed out a fifth-straight winning week. That’s its longest such streak since 2024. The Dow Jones dipped 152 points, or 0.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.9 per cent to its own record.
US companies have been blowing past expectations for earnings in the first three months of 2026. That’s even with the war with Iran and high oil prices souring confidence for many US households.
A little more than a quarter of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported already, and 84 per cent of them have topped analysts’ estimates, according to FactSet. The index is on track to deliver roughly 15 per cent growth in profit from a year earlier.
With AP
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