Daily losses in Australian equities portfolios are set to widen on Friday with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) expected to open sharply lower on concerns of an escalation in the United States and Israeli war against Iran.
The ASX 200 index is tipped to start 1.09% below the previous close when trading resumes on the ASX at 10:00 am AEDT (11:00 pm GMT Thursday), according to futures trading pricing the June contract 93 points under the prior settlement at 8,471.
This follows the pattern on Wall Street where stocks closed lower on Thursday (Friday AEDT) as the three main indexes fell more than 1%, with the Nasdaq Composite losing more than 2%.
Burrell Stockbroking wealth adviser Adam Dight said portfolios were set according to mandates, and he was not advising clients to buy or sell, given the volatility in markets.
But he expected the market would rebound to record highs once the conflict ended, “as they have for the last 100 years”, and particularly in the wake of the sharp sell-off and recovery in response to the Liberation Day tariff announcement in April 2025.
“Look at how everyone got that wrong. That was a good chance to panic as well. They thought the sky was going to fall in and they were looking pretty red faced at June 30,” Dight said.
“The problem is no one has any clarity about what (United States President Donald) Trump's going to do next.
“Everyone's just catastrophising because it's just so easy to do.”
Wells Fargo Investment Institute global equity strategist Doug Beath said the number of reports about attempts to resolve the conflict appeared to be increasing, and it was unclear who Trump was negotiating with.
"There's a lot of conflicting signals, and it's really the fog of war, the uncertainty of all of it that's driving this," he was quoted as saying in this Reuters story.
The Australian market had eased on Thursday with the ASX 200 ending down 0.1% at 8,525.7 points.
In fixed interest markets, yields on Australian Government bonds fell as two-year rates dropped 0.48% to 4.776% and 10 year rates eased 0.04% to 5.073% at the time of writing.
