ASX 200 closes the week lower on latest Trump development
On a seesawing day of trading, the ASX 200 closed down 9.10 points or 0.11 per cent to 8,580.10.
The broader All Ordinaries also slipped down 10 points or 0.11 per cent to close the week at 8,816.70.
The pullback in shares came after US President Donald Trump announced on NBC News that blanket tariffs of between 15 to 20 per cent were coming for most trading partners, while Canada would likely face 35 per cent tariffs on some goods.
That saw the Australia dollar swing from its highest point since November to fall back as the US dollar strengthened against all Asian currencies.
At the close of trading the Australian dollar was buying 65.83 US cents.
Commonwealth Bank associate director international economic and currency Carol Kong said the US dollar rose after a 'barrage of threats by President Trump.'
'Near record high US equities and the lack of significant negative impacts of tariffs on the US economy to date have likely emboldened President Trump to increase his aggression on tariffs,' she said.
'AUD/USD briefly dropped by about 0.6 per cent below 0.6560 in the Asia session after President Trump threatened more tariffs.'
On an overall negative day sparked by Mr Trump's latest tariffs update, 10 of the 11 sectors on the ASX fell.
The one bright spot was the mining sector as the price of iron ore hit a two month high.
BHP shares jumped 2.77 per cent to $39.36 while Fortescue Metals rose 2.85 per cent to $16.98 and Rio Tinto gained 2.28 per cent to $111.10.
Shares in Australian rare earth miners jumped on the announcement from the US Department of Defence after it agreed to take a 15 per cent stake in US producer MP materials for $US400m ($607m) which closed more than 50 per cent higher on the announcement.
Lynas Rare Earths soared 16.65 per cent to $9.67 and Iluka Resources climbed 22.9 per cent to $4.89 on the back of this announcement.
Offsetting the gains from the miners were falls in major banks with bourse heavyweight CBA dropping 0.53 per cent to $179.42, NAB slipping 0.33 per cent to $39.61 and Westpac down 0.18 per cent to $33.81.
ANZ was the outlier closing 0.13 per cent higher at $30.33.
In company news, construction materials business John Lyng Group soared 22.33 per cent to $3.89 after informing the market it had agreed to sell itself to Pacific Equity Partners for $1.3bn.
Shares in Vulcan Energy Resources slumped 13 per cent to $3.48 after completing a strategic placement led by BNP Paribas Clean Energy Solutions Fund. The lithium developer raised $53.6m at a 15 per cent discount of $3.40 a share.
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