The local share market was on pace to snap its winning streak at midday as traders take profits from eight days of gains and digested a flood of earnings results from the likes of Santos, IAG and Wisetech Global.
At noon AEST on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 38.9 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 7,958.8, while the broader All Ordinaries had dipped 29.1 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 8,177.9.
Moomoo chief commercial officer Michael McCarthy said investors were locking in share market gains and appeared to be rotating into bonds ahead of a Friday night address by US Fed chairman Jerome Powell to an international monetary summit in Wyoming.
Overnight, the US dollar sank to its lowest level since the start of the year against a basket of other currencies following a sharp rise in the yen, while the Aussie rose to a one-month high against the greenback following Tuesday’s release of hawkish Reserve Bank minutes.
Meanwhile, gold pushed further into record territory at $US2,531, while Brent crude dipped to a two-week low of $US77 a barrel on renewed hopes for a ceasefire in the Middle East.
At midday, seven of the ASX’s 11 sectors were lower and four were higher.
The energy sector was down 2.5 per cent, with Woodside down 1.6 per cent, Whitehaven Coal falling 4.8 per cent and Santos retreating 4.3 per cent as Australia’s second-largest gas producer announced a 19 per cent drop in half-year net profit.
All of the big four banks were lower, with CBA down 2.4 per cent, Westpac down 0.8 per cent, ANZ retreating 0.7 per cent and NAB dipping 0.4 per cent.
IAG was down 1.4 per cent as the insurance giant posted a $898 million net profit, up 7.9 per cent from a year ago, and said it would use some of that to buy back up to $350 million in shares.
In tech, Wisetech Global had shot up 16.5 per cent to an all-time high of $109.94 as the logistics platform announced a full-year profit of $212.2 million, up 24 per cent from a year ago.
Founder and chief executive Richard White said it was a strong full-year performance and three additional upcoming product releases would represent a step-change in Wisetech’s product capabilities and value to customers.
Domino’s Pizza Enterprise fell 2.8 per cent to $32.48 as the pizza giant reported its underlying profit for 2023/24 dropped 1.9 per cent to $120.4 million.
“If we’re completely transparent, we didn’t get the first phase of inflation right,” chief executive Don Meij told AAP.
“We just weren’t ready for those sort of increases, of the scale of those increases.”
Also falling on the back of earnings results was insurance broker network AUB Group, which had dropped 6.2 per cent; Corporate Travel Management, which had fallen 7.4 per cent; and Westfield owner Scentre Group, which was down 0.9 per cent.
Companies rising on the back of earnings results included property investment company Charter Hall (up 12.8 per cent); small appliance manufacturer Breville Group (7.1 per cent); pallet company Brambles (8.9 per cent); buy now, pay later company Humm Group (25 per cent); pathology and diagnostic imaging group Healius (11.4 per cent); construction materials company Maas Group (5.3 per cent); and Autobarn owner Bapcor (3.4 per cent).
In the heavyweight mining sector, goldminers were again doing well amid the record gold prices.
Northern Star was up 1.3 per cent and Evolution had climbed 0.8 per cent.
Elsewhere in the sector, BHP had dipped 0.2 per cent and Rio Tinto had dropped 0.3 per cent, while Fortescue grew 2.3 per cent.
Silver Mines had lifted 11.8 per cent to 9.5c after announcing it would push on to develop its Bowdens Silver Project near Mudgee in NSW, despite the NSW Court of Appeal revoking consent for the project last week.
The Australian dollar was buying 67.42 US cents, from 67.29 US cents at Tuesday’s ASX close.