ASX set to open flat after stocks slip on Wall Street as 2025 winds down
Damian J. Troise and Ira Iosebashvili
The Australian sharemarket is set for a flat start on the second-last day of the year, after stocks slipped overnight on Wall Street as traders pared bets on the tech giants before the end of the year and volatility hit precious metals.
ASX futures were edging up 5 points, or less than 0.1 per cent, to 8721 as of 7.25am AEDT. In New York afternoon trading, the S&P 500 fell 0.4 per cent, with shares of Tesla, Nvidia and Meta Platform among the losers. The US stock benchmark index is still up close to 18 per cent for the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4 per cent. The Nasdaq composite dropped 0.6 per cent.
The weakness in equities “is a reversal from last week when tech stocks led on the way up,” said Joe Mazzola, head trading and derivatives strategist at Charles Schwab. However, it “doesn’t appear connected to any single fundamental factor.”
The Australian dollar was trading at US66.93¢, down 0.3 per cent, as of 7.39am AEDT. Markets face another short week in the final stretch of 2025. Wall Street will be closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day, while the ASX finishes New Year’s Eve early and is closed for New Year’s Day.
Gold and silver plunged overnight, setting metal stocks up for swings on the local market, as traders booked profit following a powerful year-end rally that sent both metals to record highs, with thin market liquidity exacerbating the price swings.
Spot gold fell as much as 5 per cent, marking the biggest intraday drop since October 21, though prices for the precious metal are still up about 64 per cent for the year. Silver tumbled 11 per cent in its biggest intraday decline since September 2020, but it has still more than doubled overall in 2025. Both metals posted a sharp retreat from fresh all-time highs that triggered signals that their rally to records had run too fast, too soon.
“Don’t read into massive moves,” said Michael Haigh, head of FIC and Commodity Research at Société Générale, adding that the end of every year tends to be “so illiquid.”
Big technology stocks with outsized valuations were among the heaviest weights on the US market. Nvidia fell 1.3 per cent and Tesla was down 2.7 per cent. Investor optimism about the future of artificial intelligence has been driving the sector mostly higher all year and pushing the broader market to a series of records.
Technology stocks have been more unsteady as the year heads to a close, though. They mostly slipped in November and have only notched modest gains through December. Nvidia and several other companies focusing on AI or benefiting heavily from the developing technology have become some of the most valuable in the world. Investors have seemingly become more sceptical about whether the eventual payoff will make the hefty investments worthwhile.
US energy stocks gained ground along with rising oil prices. US benchmark crude jumped 2.4 per cent to settle at $US58.08 per barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 2.1 per cent to settle at $US61.94 a barrel. Exxon Mobil rose 1.4 per cent.
Treasury yields fell in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.12 per cent from 4.13 per cent late on Friday.
Treasury yields have fallen significantly from the start of the year. That’s partly due to initial anticipation for cuts and eventual cuts to interest rates in 2025 from the Federal Reserve. The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate three times later in the year. At the same time, it started facing a more complicated economic situation, where inflation remained stubbornly high while the job market started slowing.
Interest rate cuts could boost the US economy by making loans less expensive, but that benefit could be nullified by rising inflation stunting economic growth.
AP, with Bloomberg
