What we learned, Monday 23 June
We’re winding down our live news coverage for the day. As far as Mondays go, this one’s been dominated by grave news from the Middle East and the United States:
Anthony Albanese said the government supported Donald Trump’s attack on Iran and underlined the need for a diplomatic end to the Israel-Iran conflict.
The response was heavily criticised by the former Labor senator and union leader Doug Cameron.
Senator Jacqui Lambie also did not hold back on her opinions of Albanese’s support of the attack, calling the US president a “bloody sociopath”.
The Greens’ David Shoebridge said the attacks were “grossly unlawful” and that Albanese was trying to curry favour with Trump.
Shadow foreign minister Andrew Hastie supported the government’s stance but said the PM had been “too slow and too silent and too passive”.
Penny Wong earlier said the government supported the attacks – while also calling for diplomacy. She also said the US had not asked Australia to engage in the attacks. Some 3000 Australians sought help from within Iran, she said.
The former Australian ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos said Australian combat troops were not the way forward.
Both Qantas and Virgin Australia say they are monitoring airspace around the Middle East closely.
Petrol prices were expected to rise at least 5c a litre after the US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.
New Zealand’s foreign minister said he was looking for evidence that justified the US strikes.
The ASX closed lower as the markets awaited Iran’s response to the attacks. More than $10bn was wiped from the Australian share market on opening.
Finally, we’ll leave you with a piece of good news. A humpback whale off Sydney was disentangled after being caught in about 150 metres of rope.
Thank you for joining us. We’ll be back bright and early tomorrow.
Updated
ASX closes lower as markets wait for Iranian response
The Australian share market closed lower today but the sell-down was modest given the tense situation in the Middle East.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell almost 0.4% to 8,475 points as investors weighed up the risk of an Iranian retaliation to US strikes on nuclear facilities.
Airlines and travel companies, including Qantas and Flight Centre, were among the most affected stocks, due to an expected slowdown in bookings linked to the conflict.
Investors are also concerned that rising fuel prices, linked to potential supply disruptions, could hurt airline profits.
Both stocks were down about 2% on Monday, accelerating falls suffered last week.
The size of the drop in the ASX is small compared to the market fallout caused by other major recent events, including Donald Trump’s tariffs, which sent the benchmark down by more than 4% in a single day.
Omkar Joshi, chief investment officer at Sydney-headquartered Opal Capital Management, said investors were taking a measured response to the US strikes.
“It was news but not a complete surprise as we expected the US to do something at some stage,” he said.
If the conflict escalates materially, that would be a key concern for markets.
There’s a bit of complacency in the market. It probably wouldn’t take much for it to break.
Updated
