Australia’s most valuable banking, tech and consumer stocks dragged the local sharemarket 0.6 per cent lower in the first hours of Monday’s trading as investors digested the implications of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse despite assurances from US regulators that they would protect depositors.
CSL shares were 0.8 per cent lower to $283.69, retail conglomerate Wesfarmers was 1.1 per cent down to $49.37 and grocery giant Woolworths group slipped 0.5 per cent. Investors got a clearer picture of how exposed Australian companies were to the US bank throughout the morning as venture capital firms started to comment on how their portfolio companies were affected.
Betashares economist David Bassanese said on Monday morning that no matter what happened next with SVB, the situation was unlikely to be resolved quickly and might even be enough for the Federal Reserve to pause interest rate rises next month. The Fed has already raised rates at the fastest pace in decades and made other moves to reverse its tremendous support for the economy during the pandemic. It’s effectively pulling money out of the economy, which can tighten the screws on the system.“This is a warning sign that the liquidity is draining, and the most vulnerable areas are starting to show it, which tells me the rest of the economy is not too far behind,” Schutte said.
But the data also showed a slowdown from January’s jaw-dropping hiring rate. More importantly for markets, average hourly earnings for workers rose by less in February than economists expected.
Malaysia Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: FinancialReview - 🏆 2. / 90 Read more »