The Australian sharemarket retreated on Friday as investors reacted to fresh United States tariff threats and weakness in commodity prices.
The S&P/ASX200 index lost 95.8 points or 1.2% to 8,172.40, with all 11 sectors finishing lower.
Market sentiment took a hit after U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada will take effect next week, along with a 10% levy on Chinese goods.
Key mining stocks dropped in response, with Rio Tinto declining 2.9%, BHP down 2.5%, and Fortescue falling 3.7%.
Australian technology stocks extended losses, tracking a sharp sell-off in Asian chip manufacturers, following Nvidia’s 8.5% slump in U.S. trading.
Wisetech shed 4.8%, Brainchip shed 18.3%, NextDC fell 2%, and Xero dropped 3.3%.
Among individual companies, Star Entertainment plummeted 15.4% after the company warned that its ability to continue trading was uncertain.
Endeavour Group lost 7.1% after reporting a 15.1% drop in interim profit.
Harvey Norman gained 2.6% after reporting an increase in H1 FY25 profit.
TPG Telecom rose 2.4% as underlying earnings increased 3.4% to A$2 billion, despite posting an A$107 million net loss.
On the bond markets, 10-year and 2-year rates were 0.5% and 0.7% lower at 4.307% and 3.740%, respectively.
