The ASX closed lower on Friday after Afterpay owner Block Inc dropped 18 per cent in the wake of a scathing report by short-seller Hindenburg that alleged the company "misled" investors.
It followed the Bank of England lifting interest rates by 0.25 percentage points overnight, while Wall Street finished higher after Treasury secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed that steps would be taken to prevent contagion.
Look back at the day's financial news and insights from our specialist business reporters on our live blog.
Disclaimer: This blog is not intended as investment advice.
Key events
Live updates
Here's how the market finished as of 4:30pm AEDT
By Kate Ainsworth
- ASX 200: -0.19% to 6,955 points
- All Ords: -0.15% to 7,137 points
- Australian dollar: +0.06% to 66.87 US cents
- Dow Jones: +0.23% to 32,105 points
- S&P 500: +0.29% to 3,948 points
- Nasdaq: +1.01% to 11,787 points
- FTSE: -0.89% to 7,499 points
- EuroStoxx: +0.3% to 4,207 points
- Brent crude: -0.12 at $US75.82/barrel
- Spot gold: -0.15% to $US1,990.26/ounce
- Iron ore: -2.7% to $US120.20/tonne
- Bitcoin: -0.21% to $US28,297
ASX finishes Friday down 0.19pc to 6,955.20
By Kate Ainsworth
The markets have shut for another day, and it was another day of closing lower for the ASX.
It dropped 0.19% to 6,995.20 points, largely driven by a 5.92% drop in the industrials sector (which was one of only three sectors down for the end of Friday).
Block Inc finished the day as the worst performing stock, dropping 18.16% at the close of trade, followed by Brickworks, which was down 4.46%.
BrainChip Holdings was the top performer, up 6.71%, while AGL Energy continued its strong performance, finishing the day up 6.12%.
As for sectors, utilities finished on top with a 1.02% gain, with academic and educational services just behind, picking up 0.99%.
And that brings the markets blog to a close for the day, and the week.
Thanks for following along — we'll be back to do it all again bright and early on Monday.
Until then, you can keep up-to-date with other news on the ABC's website, by subscribing to our mobile alerts, and by watching News Channel or listening to local radio here.
Rent rises aren't going anywhere — and it could see more of us go back to share houses
By Kate Ainsworth
If your rent has gone up recently, or you've been searching for a new rental only to find they're not as cheap as they once were (same), you're not alone.
But the cause for that isn't interest rates — rather, it's the way we're living now.
The average household size has shrunk since the pandemic, and more of us are living alone since 2020, which is putting additional demand on the rental market.
That, coupled with not enough new houses being built, and we're seeing prices being driven up as a result.
Confused? Curious? Concerned? All of the above?
My colleague Emilia Terzon has spent her day sifting through the RBA's latest research notes on housing and made sense of it all for us — including why we might see the return of the share house.
You can read her analysis below:
HBF members to receive $110 million in COVID-19 savings
By Kate Ainsworth
If you're a HBF member then I have good news for your Friday — the health insurer is paying its members around $110 million.
Why? The company set aside funds while health services were impacted during COVID-19, thinking that money would be used to be paid out as claims.
Now the health insurer says claims are stabilising, and so it will return those savings back to eligible members.
"Early in the pandemic HBF pledged to not profit from COVID-19 and we're keeping to that promise," HBF CEO Dr Lachlan Henderson said.
"We're now seeing claims stabilise and our commitment to our members is that they should be the direct beneficiaries of any COVID-19 savings.
"Our members have told us in surveys they would prefer the simplicity of having any savings paid directly into their own bank accounts rather than via premium increase deferrals.
"This gives them the choice of how to spend this money in light of cost-of-living challenges facing Australian households."
HBF will begin issuing the payments from June this year, and will range from $45 for singles with an extras-only policy, while families with a hospital and extras policy can receive $330.
Construction industry downturn coming in next six months, Brickworks boss says
By Kate Ainsworth
Yesterday Brickworks posted a record half-yearly profit of $410 million — and had a good day on the market as a result.
In its statement, Brickworks noted that its results were driven by a solid demand for building materials, but Brickworks's Managing Director Lindsay Partridge is expecting a construction downturn to hit within the next six months.
He told The Business's Alicia Barry that the home builder backlog will disappear in the next financial year as the HomeBuilder work dries up.
If you missed it last night, you can watch his full interview below:
UBS takeover of Credit Suisse to be finalised in 'next couple of weeks'
By Kate Ainsworth
That's according to the SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan.
Rumours began to circle over the weekend UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, was looking to buy part or all of Credit Suisse, before UBS confirmed the news at the start of the week.
Mr Jordan told reporters the takeover is complex, but believes it will be successful.
"UBS made a full commitment to the takeover of Credit Suisse. Now it is extremely important that both parties involved, Credit Suisse and UBS do everything that the takeover will be successful and the next couple of weeks until the closing will go smoothly through," he said.
"I think this is absolutely necessary and we got all the commitments by the involved parties that they do everything that this takeover will be successful.
"It's important for both it's important for Switzerland and important for financial stability."
Accenture cuts 19,000 jobs globally
By Kate Ainsworth
Accenture has become the latest tech company to slash its workforce, using its annual revenue and profit forecasts to cut 2.5% of it's employees — equivalent to 19,000 jobs.
The company said half of the jobs will come from its non-billable corporate functions, and will spend $US1.2 billion in severance, plus another $US300 million to consolidate office space.
It hasn't said how many, if any, of those jobs will affect its Australian employees.
ASX continues to fall at lunchtime, on track to finish week at a loss
By Kate Ainsworth
The market has continued to fall throughout today's trade, down 0.48% as of 12:30pm AEDT, largely due to financials being firmly in the red.
Block Inc is leading the losses today in the wake of the Hindenburg report, while Coronado Global Resources is down by 3.44%, AMP is down 3.1%, and Brickworks has shed 3.07%.
It isn't all bad news on the market though — AGL is still leading the charge, up 4.91%, with BrainChip Holdings up 3.66%.
NewsCorp is also a top mover so far today, up 1.87%.
But unless things pick up this afternoon before markets close for the day (and week), the ASX is on track to finish with its seventh straight weekly loss.
Here's how the market's going as of 12:30pm AEDT
By Kate Ainsworth
- ASX 200: -0.48% to 6,935 points
- All Ords: -0.44% to 7,117 points
- Australian dollar: -0.31 to 66.62 US cents
- Dow Jones: +0.23% to 32,105 points
- S&P 500: +0.29% to 3,948 points
- Nasdaq: +1.01% to 11,787 points
- FTSE: -0.89% to 7,499 points
- EuroStoxx: +0.3% to 4,207 points
- Brent crude: -1.01% at $US75.14/barrel
- Spot gold: -0.06% to $US1,992.05/ounce
- Iron ore: -2.7% to $US120.20/tonne
- Bitcoin: -0.04 to $US28,231
Block shares dive 18pc after scathing Hindenburg report
By Kate Ainsworth
Block Inc, formerly known as Square Inc, a mobile payment company founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, is easily the worst performer on the ASX so far this morning, shedding 18.27% as we hit midday AEDT.
Block suffered a similar fate on Wall Street overnight, thanks to a scathing report by short-seller Hindenburg which alleges the company is a fraud.
Hindenburg says it's arrived at the conclusion after a two-year investigation involving former employees, partners and industry experts, finding the company has "systemically taken advantage of the demographics it claims to be helping".
"The “magic” behind Block’s business has not been disruptive innovation, but rather the company’s willingness to facilitate fraud against consumers and the government, avoid regulation, dress up predatory loans and fees as revolutionary technology, and mislead investors with inflated metrics," it wrote.
Meanwhile Block has released a statement, saying it intends to work with the SEC and "explore legal action" against the research company for what it says is a "factually inaccurate and misleading report".
Credit Suisse crisis 'put to a halt', Swiss National Bank says
By Kate Ainsworth
Of course, it wasn't just interest rates that were of interest in the Swiss National Bank's monetary policy assessment overnight — Credit Suisse was also a big talking point.
In its assessment, the SNB said the support measures put in place by the Swiss government, FINMA and the SNB have "put a halt to the crisis".
But the SNB's chairman Thomas Jordan was pressed on Credit Suisse this during a media conference after the decision, given it has borrowed 50 billion Swiss francs ($81.6 billion) from the SNB, and UBS has committed to taking over the troubled bank.
“Let me emphasise one thing very clearly: our liquidity measures are loans that are secured and bear interest, not gifts," Mr Thomas said.
"With these measures, the government, Finma and the National Bank have put a stop to the crisis."
"This far-reaching liquidity support bought the necessary time to find a solution to preserve financial stability.
"This solution had to be worked out under great time pressure in order to be ready before the Asian market opened this week.
"A bankruptcy of Credit Suisse would have had serious consequences for national and international financial stability and for the Swiss economy.
"To risk this would have been irresponsible."
Swiss National Bank lifts interest rates by 0.5 percentage points
By Kate Ainsworth
It wasn't just the Bank of England that lifted rates overnight — so too did the Swiss National Bank.
They've followed suit and tightened its monetary policy, lifting rates by 0.5 percentage points, taking its rate to 1.5%.
SNB also hasn't ruled out further rate rises either, saying additional rises could be necessary to "ensure price stability over the medium term".
The bank also noted that without the rate increase, inflation would be even higher in the medium term, due to inflationary pressure from overseas.
“The inflationary situation, the inflationary pressure in Switzerland is such that a further tightening of monetary policy was necessary," SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan said.
"It was the right answer and we believe that in the short and medium term it's contributing, I think, to a situation that is better than waiting and not doing and not taking any decisions regarding monetary policy."
AGL leads early trade charge, financial sector takes a hit
By Kate Ainsworth
Markets are open and the ASX has opened lower as predicted — it's down 0.5% to 6,933 points.
Looking at sectors, only one is in positive territory so far, and that's utilities, up a very slight 0.05%.
That's largely thanks to AGL, which has jumped 2.15% in early trade.
Other big movers so far have been BrainChip Holdings (they're up 3.66%) and Perseus Mining (up 2.23%).
As for those that have been off to a rough start, Brickworks and AMP are jostling for the title of shedding the most in early trade.
After a bumper day on the market yesterday, Brickworks is down 1.89% (which might be market correction, or it might be because of some interesting comments their MD made on The Business last night... more on that soon.)
AMP is down 2.38% to start off the trading day, and Ampol has dropped by 1.64%.
Here's how the market looks at 10:20am AEDT
By Kate Ainsworth
- ASX 200: -0.5% to 6,933 points
- All Ords: -0.47% to 7,117 points
- Australian dollar: -0.06% to 66.79 US cents
- Dow Jones: +0.23% to 32,105 points
- S&P 500: +0.29% to 3,948 points
- Nasdaq: +1.01% to 11,787 points
- FTSE: -0.89% to 7,499 points
- EuroStoxx: +0.3% to 4,207 points
- Brent crude: -1.85% at $US75.27/barrel
- Spot gold: -0.06% to $US1,992.30/ounce
- Iron ore: -2.7% to $US120.20/tonne
- Bitcoin: -0.3% to $US28,404.99
IPH boosts security after cyber attack, says investigation will take 'weeks'
By Kate Ainsworth
Intellectual property services group IPH has just issued an update on last week's cyber incident.
If you missed it, IPH confirmed it was hit by a cyber incident on March 16 (the same day Latitude announced its cyber attack), and said it had "detected unauthorised access to a portion of its IT environment", which was mainly limited to its document management systems.
In its note to the ASX, IPH says it has established "new network infrastructure" and its key system functionality has been restored, and had enhanced its cyber security measures — but its investigation into the attack will take several weeks.
"IPH is continuing its response and its investigation into the extent of and nature of the unauthorised access to the IT environment and data held within it, which is expected to extend over a number of weeks," the note said.
"As our investigation and response continues and business operations are restored, we will continue to update the market as appropriate."
Is the Fed more focused on the banking crisis than inflation?
By Kate Ainsworth
It's a reasonable question to ask in the wake of the Federal Reserve lifting interest rates by 0.25 percentage points yesterday and the recent collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
But with the Fed expecting inflation to come down, US fund manager Nancy Davis told The Business's Alicia Barry inflation is still a risk to the US economy.
You can watch their full chat below:
Medibank's technology boss to retire
By Kate Ainsworth
Medibank has this morning announced its head of technology and operations, John Goodall will retire after six years at the helm.
Mr Goodall joined Medibank in December 2016, and has been responsible for the company's technology, procurement and operations functions.
"I want to take this opportunity to thank John for his significant contribution to our business over the past six years and we all wish him well in his retirement," Medibank CEO David Koczkar said in the ASX release.
Mr Goodall's role was in the spotlight last year when Medibank suffered a cyber attack, with thousands of customers having their personal data stolen.
He'll officially retire next month, with the senior executive of Medibank's customer systems Kylie Williamson to act as the tech boss in the interim while Medibank begins the recruitment process.
Bank of England flags potential future rate rises
By Kate Ainsworth
Let's unpack the Bank of England's decision to lift interest rates, and what it says about the British economy.
The minutes of the meeting show the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is expecting global economic growth to be stronger than what's projected in the February Monetary Policy Report, and consumer price inflation in advanced economies has remained high.
But the MPC says while CPI inflation increased "unexpectedly" in its latest release, it's likely to "fall sharply over the rest of the year".
That said, the MPC is going to keep monitoring inflationary pressures, and says if there was "evidence of more persistent pressures, then further tightening in monetary policy would be required" — aka, future rate rises haven't been entirely ruled out.
Here's where we're sitting at 7:30am AEDT
By Kate Ainsworth
- ASX SPI 200 futures: -0.56% to 6,950
- Australian dollar: 66.81 US cents
- On Wall St: Dow +0.23%, S&P 500 +0.29%, Nasdaq +1.29%
- In Europe: Stoxx +0.27%, FTSE -0.89%, DAX -0.04%
- Spot gold: +1.28% at $US1,994.78/ounce
- Brent crude: -1.85% at $US75.27/barrel
- Iron ore: -1.9% to $US118.05 a tonne
- Bitcoin: +3.09% at $US28,234
Another day, another rate rise — this time from the Bank of England
By Kate Ainsworth
Good morning and welcome to the ABC's live markets blog this Friday, March 24.
Overnight the Bank of England followed the lead of the Federal Reserve, lifting interest rates by 0.25 percentage points.
That's taken the UK central bank's cash rate target to 4.25% — but the BoE's Governor Andrew Bailey admitted he doesn't know if this is as high as rates will go.
"We don't know whether it's going to be the peak," he said.
"What I can tell you is that we've seen signs of inflation really peaking now, but of course it's far too high.
"We need to see it starting to come down progressively and get back to target."
In the US, Wall Street had a back-and-forth trading day, but finished higher after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen restated that measures will be taken to keep the deposits of Americans safe in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapses.
"As I have said, we have used important tools to act quickly to prevent contagion. And they are tools we could use again," she told a US House subcommittee.
"The strong actions we have taken ensure that Americans’ deposits are safe. Certainly, we would be prepared to take additional actions if warranted."
In other news overnight, Rio Tinto says current and former employees may have had their personal data stolen by a cybercriminal group.
The stolen data is related to an attack on a third-party app used by the mining company, which says payroll information have been seized.
Rio Tinto says the group threatened to release the data onto the dark web, and investigations into the incident are ongoing.
All of this points to the ASX opening lower this morning, after all but one sector finished in the red yesterday.
Will it rally in the wake of Wall Street's see-sawing? Let's grab a coffee and wait and see it play out, shall we?
