Australian shares are tilting lower as falls in iron ore miners pull the index from yesterday’s record high above 8000 points.
The S&P/ASX 200 was 11.7 points, or 0.2 per cent, lower to be 8017.4 points at lunchtime, shrugging off gains on Wall Street as traders started to weigh the prospect of a third rate cut in the US.
Materials stocks are 1.4 per cent lower, with BHP the largest drag at 2 per cent down to $43.01. Iron ore futures in Singapore are 1.7 per cent lower at $US107 per tonne.
US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said overnight that second-quarter data bolstered confidence that inflation was cooling, while Goldman Sachs said conditions were ripe for easing.
Two quarter-point rate reductions are fully priced in for 2024, with market-implied odds of a third cut reaching about 60 per cent on Tuesday (AEST). The next policy meeting is set for July 30 to 31, where rates are expected to remain steady.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent to close at 5631.22, while the Dow notched an all-time closing high at 40,211.72 as Apple asserted its market-cap dominance. Goldman Sachs was higher on solid quarterly results.
Trump Media & Technology Group also soared 31 per cent as the weekend assassination attempt on Donald Trump was viewed as a positive for his campaign to return to the White House.
Overnight, Trump named Ohio senator J.D. Vance as his running mate. All three US benchmarks pared their advances on the news.
Stocks in focus
Rio Tinto received approval from Guinean and Chinese authorities to invest in its Simandou high-grade iron ore project and is expected to put $US6.2 billion ($9.2 billion) into it and surrounding infrastructure. Rio also said it had produced 157.4 million tonnes of iron ore in the first half of 2024, down 2 per cent from a year earlier. Iron ore shipments fell by the same amount to 158.3 million tonnes. Shares are 2.2 per cent lower at $117.26.
IGO said it would write down more than $250 million in impairments to its exploration assets following a review of its operations. The miner expects the impairment range of exploration assets to be between $275 million and $295 million for the full year. Shares are 1.4 per cent lower at $5.91.
Electric Optic Systems is 4.9 per cent higher at $1.70 after revenue soared 92 per cent in the first half of 2024 due to increased weapon systems orders from a Middle East client.
Shares in Genex Power are 1.9 per cent higher at 27.5¢ as shareholders prepare to vote on the buyout bid from Japan’s J-Power.