Good morning and welcome to the ABC’s finance blog. I’ll be here to guide you through the latest news over the next few hours.
The Australian share market is on track for a slow start as investors digest the latest “Trump tariff” updates and a modest fall on Wall Street overnight.
ASX futures are up 0.1% , which suggests the market will open relatively flat.
Several major companies will release their financial results this morning, including AMP, News Corp and REA Group. (Of course, we’ll let you know what they are as soon as they’re out.)
It appears the ASX may shrug off a negative lead from Wall Street, which was dragged down by weaker-than-expected earnings from some major US companies.
Wall Street’s sluggish session
The Dow Jones index fell 0.1% to 44,112 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.5%, to 6,300 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.7%, to 20,917.
Shares of Yum Brands plunged 5.1% after the company’s quarterly results fell below analysts’ expectations, hurt by higher ingredient costs and muted demand from consumers that weighed on its businesses (including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell).
Meanwhile, Caterpillar warned US tariffs would pose significant challenges in the second half of the year and cost it up to $US1.5 billion in 2025.
“Impact of tariffs was around the top end of our estimated range for the quarter and it’s likely to be a more significant headwind to profitability in the second half of 2025,” the company’s CEO Joe Creed said.
Despite that, Caterpillar’s share price managed to end its day with a slight gain of 0.1% (practically flat).
And of course, we’ll have a lot more throughout the day on local reporting season, so stick around!