Afternoon Report | ASX tumbles

This is the Fear and Greed Afternoon Report - everything you need to know about what happened in the markets, economy and world of business today, in just a few minutes.

1. ASX down 1.9pc

2. Technology One slumps 17.2pc 

3. Westpac boss on housing crisis

4. State politics leadership changes

5. Trump refuses to rule out troops in Venezuela

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report
for Tuesday, the eighteenth of November. I'm Michael Thompson, and
every afternoon we have the five big stories that happen
today that you need to know about. Let's get going
with story number one. The S and P ASX two
hundred tumbled almost two percent today, one hundred and sixty
seven points lower to eighty four hundred and sixty nine points.

(00:26):
It is the lowest the market has been since June.
It is the second biggest drop this year. Sixty billion
dollars in value has wiped out today. All eleven sectors
were lower, but this drop is really all about the
tech stocks, which were off six percent. There's a lot
of uncertainty around interest rates at the moment here and
in the US, but also growing anxiety about in Vidia's

(00:48):
upcoming results in the US, which will be announced on
Thursday our time. Investors are worried that if in Video,
which is at the heart of the of the AI boom,
if that fails to per it'll be bad news for
the rest of the tech sector that has invested billions
and billions and billions of dollars into AI and Video's
shares closed almost two percent lower this morning, setting the

(01:11):
local boss up for a bad day. Locally, the worst
performer was tech company Technology one. More on that one
in a moment. Other tech stocks they were hammered as well.
Drone Shield was off almost six percent. Wistech Global was
down four point six percent to a two year low.
The banks were lower. Commonwealth Bank fell one point seven percent,
NAB was two percent down, Westpac closed three percent lower.

(01:35):
These are big numbers. The big miners lost ground. BHP
was off three point seven percent, Rio tinto two point
seven percent, four to Q two percent. This is even
though the price of iron ore was holding steady. The
gold miners were down as well. There was one piece
of good news, and I would say it's probably a
rare piece of good news for James Hardy, which climbed

(01:56):
nearly ten percent today after its first quarter result was
in line with expectations. Onto story number two, and I
mentioned Technology one, The share price for the software company
tumbled seventeen point two percent today, even though its annual
result was pretty much in line with expectations and it
declared a special dividend. In fact, profit was up nineteen percent,

(02:18):
which was ahead of expectations, but annual recurring revenue fell
short of expectations and the software company did not provide
any guidance for the twenty twenty six financial year. Investors
do not like it when a company doesn't provide guidance.
That tend to think that the company might perhaps be
hiding something and that's why Technology One was the worst

(02:39):
performing stock today. Story number three Away from local markets.
Westpac boss Anthony Miller has told a parliamentary committee in
Canberra that building more homes costing between five hundred thousand
and six hundred thousand dollars would go a long way
to reducing the pressure on Australians to get into their
own place. He said it was quote just as challenge

(03:00):
as ever to get into the market and that more
has to be done to help bring price pressure down,
even though there has been many initiatives already, he said,
and I quote, I would argue that we have to
spend more time, more focus and more effort around building
properties in that price point that are going to solve
this for the majority of Australians. Just to give you

(03:22):
a taste of how much the market has grown, the
latest figures from totality show that Australia's home value growth
has hit its fastest pace in over two years, the
annual growth rate in prices climbing to six point one percent.
Story number four. In state politics, Victoria has a new
opposition leader. Thirty five year old Jess Wilson will lead

(03:43):
the party into next year's state election, promising a new
generation of Libs. And the New South Wales Nationals have
a new leader, Gomesh Singh got the job. One of
the first things he said was that he supports net
zero targets. Meanwhile, the New South Wales Liberals have split
with their federal colleagues by sticking with net zero. So
at a party room meeting today with New South Wales
opposition leader Mark Speakman under a cloud of leadership speculation.

(04:07):
It is a very eventful time of year for state politics.
And finally, story number five, US President Donald Trump says
he hasn't ruled out putting American troops on the ground
in Venezuela. In recent months, the US has conducted a
number of strikes against suspected drug trafficking boats off the
Venezuelan coast. The US has also now moved the USS

(04:29):
gerald r Ford aircraft carrier to the Caribbean for the
anti smuggling campaign that they call Operation Southern Spear, along
with two guided missile destroyers and other vessels and aircraft.
Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro has claimed that the military build
up is designed to drive him from power. Asked though,
whether he would speak directly to Maduro, President Trump has

(04:52):
told reporters I probably would talk to him. Yeah, I
talked to everybody. But he also said that he wouldn't
rule out sending troops in adding and I quote, I
don't rule out anything. That's it for the Afternoon Report
for Tuesday, the eighteenth of November. Make sure you're following
the podcast and please head along to Fearandgreed dot com
dot au or click the link in today's show notes

(05:12):
to sign up for our free daily newsletter. I'm Michael Thompson.
Have a good evening.