US trade court blocks Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs
A US trade court has blocked President Donald Trump from using emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs on imports. Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk has announced he's leaving his role as a top adviser to President Trump.
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Perth Now
20 minutes ago
- Perth Now
ASX slides before key economic events
Australia's sharemarket sea-sawed throughout Thursday's trading as the Commonwealth Bank continued its record march higher. The benchmark ASX 200 index basically traded flat, losing just 2.90 points or 0.03 per cent to 8,538.90. The broader All Ordinaries also finished marginally in the red down 1.60 points or 0.02 per cent to 8,768.90. The Aussie dollar temporarily jumped above 65 US cents, but slid throughout the day's trading and is now buying 64.99 US cents. Despite taking its breath, the market is closing in on a record high. NewsWire / Jeremy Piper Credit: News Corp Australia Even with the minor falls, the market remains within 20 points of an all-time record close. On a relatively quiet day of trading seven of the 11 sectors were lower, with information technology, A-REITs, Materials and Telecommunications lifting the ASX. CBA continued its record run after a late surge saw Australia's largest bank add 0.13 per cent to $181.34. Westpac also gained 0.48 per cent to $33.26, while NAB shares slid 0.23 per cent to $38.51 and ANZ was basically flat losing 0.034 per cent to $29.63. Meanwhile healthcare heavyweight CSL fell 1.32 per cent to $242.96, while Prop Medicus fell 0.89 per cent to $280.82 and Telix Pharmaceuticals dropped 2.83 per cent to $26.43. Utilities shares also slumped. Origin Energy fell 1.31 per cent to $10.58, while AGL slipped 0.57 per cent to $10.39 and Meridian Energy dropped 2.09 per cent to $5.16. Thursday's trading came ahead of a number of key international events led by US President Donald Trump's much hyped call with China's leader Xi Jinping, a European Central Bank meeting and American non-farm payroll data. senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda said the markets may hit a lull heading into the non-farm payrolls release, with the upcoming ECB decision also a potentially market moving event. 'The ECB is all but certain to cut rates. However, there's uncertainty about the guidance the central bank will deliver given the murky outlook for US trade policy and global growth,' he said. Lithium shares were one of the bright spots on the ASX. NewsWire / Jeremy Piper Credit: News Corp Australia One of the bright spots was lithium stocks led by the resources sector on the back of the White House announced they are creating new grants to help Albemarle fund a new lithium processing facility. Mineral Resources surged 15.14 per cent to $23.26, Pilbara Minerals also soared 12.08 per cent to $1.34 and Liontown Resources jumped 5.25 per cent to $0.64. In company news, Toys R Us has announced it was going into voluntary administration. Toys R Us shares have immediately suspended from trading on the ASX pending further announcements. Shares in Tyro slumped 10.38 per cent to $0.82 with investors selling down the payments business on the back of chief executive and managing director Jon Davey announcing he was moving to a new role with a private equity business. Resimac shares also fell sharply on Thursday, although investors won't mind as the company is going to pay a fully franked special dividend of 12 cents per share. Catapult slipped 0.97 per cent to $6.16 after telling the market the company is purchasing US sports technology company Perch for $US18m ($AU27.70m).
West Australian
28 minutes ago
- West Australian
ASX finishes lower despite lithium shares huge rally
Australia's sharemarket sea-sawed throughout Thursday's trading as the Commonwealth Bank continued its record march higher. The benchmark ASX 200 index basically traded flat, losing just 2.90 points or 0.03 per cent to 8,538.90. The broader All Ordinaries also finished marginally in the red down 1.60 points or 0.02 per cent to 8,768.90. The Aussie dollar temporarily jumped above 65 US cents, but slid throughout the day's trading and is now buying 64.99 US cents. Even with the minor falls, the market remains within 20 points of an all-time record close. On a relatively quiet day of trading seven of the 11 sectors were lower, with information technology, A-REITs, Materials and Telecommunications lifting the ASX. CBA continued its record run after a late surge saw Australia's largest bank add 0.13 per cent to $181.34. Westpac also gained 0.48 per cent to $33.26, while NAB shares slid 0.23 per cent to $38.51 and ANZ was basically flat losing 0.034 per cent to $29.63. Meanwhile healthcare heavyweight CSL fell 1.32 per cent to $242.96, while Prop Medicus fell 0.89 per cent to $280.82 and Telix Pharmaceuticals dropped 2.83 per cent to $26.43. Utilities shares also slumped. Origin Energy fell 1.31 per cent to $10.58, while AGL slipped 0.57 per cent to $10.39 and Meridian Energy dropped 2.09 per cent to $5.16. Thursday's trading came ahead of a number of key international events led by US President Donald Trump's much hyped call with China's leader Xi Jinping, a European Central Bank meeting and American non-farm payroll data. senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda said the markets may hit a lull heading into the non-farm payrolls release, with the upcoming ECB decision also a potentially market moving event. 'The ECB is all but certain to cut rates. However, there's uncertainty about the guidance the central bank will deliver given the murky outlook for US trade policy and global growth,' he said. One of the bright spots was lithium stocks led by the resources sector on the back of the White House announced they are creating new grants to help Albemarle fund a new lithium processing facility. Mineral Resources surged 15.14 per cent to $23.26, Pilbara Minerals also soared 12.08 per cent to $1.34 and Liontown Resources jumped 5.25 per cent to $0.64. In company news, Toys R Us has announced it was going into voluntary administration. Toys R Us shares have immediately suspended from trading on the ASX pending further announcements. Shares in Tyro slumped 10.38 per cent to $0.82 with investors selling down the payments business on the back of chief executive and managing director Jon Davey announcing he was moving to a new role with a private equity business. Resimac shares also fell sharply on Thursday, although investors won't mind as the company is going to pay a fully franked special dividend of 12 cents per share. Catapult slipped 0.97 per cent to $6.16 after telling the market the company is purchasing US sports technology company Perch for $US18m ($AU27.70m).
West Australian
an hour ago
- West Australian
Anthony Albanese likely to delay defence funding strategy update despite expected Trump pressure
The Government is likely to wait for a defence strategy update due next year before revealing any funding boost, despite strong expectations Donald Trump will pressure Anthony Albanese over Australia's budget position at their imminent meeting. Government ministers have pointed to the national defence strategy, expected to be released around April, as they argue it's more important to work out what to spend any new money on than promise an arbitrary figure. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth last week told Australian minister Richard Marles that America wants Australia to lift its spending rapidly to 3.5 per cent of GDP. Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh said the point of setting up a biennial formal process was to make sure 'there is a regular drumbeat of those activities' in assessing what the strategic situation meant for capability, acquisition, sustainment, 'and how that flows into the budget'. 'The point around the National Defence Strategy and that being updated and reported to Parliament every two years is it makes sure that the entire system ... is doing that process in an orderly way and providing that public transparency around how we are engaging in supporting Defence and building the capability that's required in the strategic circumstances we face as those change as well,' he said. His comments came a day after Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the Government was 'open to having a conversation about increasing defence spending' but also pointed to the national defence strategy as a way to focus on doing what mattered most first. Chief of the Defence Force David Johnston said the two-yearly strategy gave Defence the chance to offer its 'frank advice' on the need to increase spending. The previous national defence strategy was released in April 2024 and the next one, which Defence has already started writing, is expected early next year. But as allies like the United Kingdom and Germany increase their spending commitments, the pressure is on Australia to follow suit. Strategic studies expert Peter Dean said while the Prime Minister was taking the right approach in prioritising capabilities over a dollar figure, the spending as a proportion of GDP figure had become a 'signal of will' on the international stage. '(It) has become a political proxy, both internationally and domestically, about commitment and will in terms of defending yourself, but also matching your international partners. And of course, certainly the Trump administration has taken that proxy amount and has doubled and tripled down on that,' he told The Nightly. 'Of course, it's actually a really bad way to do defence funding, because GDP goes up and GDP goes down.' However, he saw the openness of government to spending more as a good starting point. The release of the defence strategy would give the Government a chance to convince sceptical voters why spending had to be increased, he said. Mr Albanese is expected to meet Mr Trump when he travels to Canada for the G7 summit later this month for a discussion likely to canvass the AUKUS partnership, Defence spending, trade and critical minerals. Professor Dean said it appeared Mr Albanese was positioning himself to have a conversation with the President 'that moves beyond the vagaries of GDP numbers to discuss things about specific capabilities and specific things that we might want to partner with the US on' in a more nuanced way. But he was sceptical whether the tactic would work. 'President Trump is so mercurial and President Trump has proven he's not into the depths of policy nuance,' he said. 'He skates along the surface of things, and he loves shorthand proxies to explain almost everything, whether they have a basis in truth or not.'
