Weekly wrap: Aussie shares sink 0.6% as US Bonds defy Bessent intervention

Weekly wrap: Aussie shares sink 0.6% as US Bonds defy Bessent intervention

Unsuccessful attempts by the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to force lower interest rates have backfired and helped to send the Australian share market down 0.6% for the week.

The theory was that by launching a buyback of long-dated U.S. Government debt, Bessent could massage interest rates lower and slow down the rising interest cost on the deeply indebted US Government.

However, just one short day after he launched this effort, U.S. 10-year notes were actually up 6 basis points to 4.7% and Wall Street reacted badly, falling almost 1% for the day.

This spilled over to our share market on Friday with the ASX 200 Index down 24.9 points, or 0.3%, to 9058.9 points – taking the weekly loss to 0.6%.

Inflation worries persist

That’s probably as good as we could have hoped for given such a weak lead from the world’s biggest market, with six out of eleven market sectors in the red.

The quick rebound in US Treasury yields and rising energy prices as the Iran war grinds on with no resolution has reignited pessimism on the inflation front from investors.

Oil prices are on the rise again as Brent crude hit $US93 a barrel level for the first time in three weeks, as US President Donald Trump once again talked tough about imposing more economic sanctions on Iran and its trading partners.

Listed property hit hard

Here in Australia, this weighed heavily on the listed property sector, with Goodman Group shares (ASX: GMG) falling 5.3% to $27.27 on top of a 1.5% drop on Thursday.

While Goodman shares have rallied hard on the continuing data centre roll out, investors are starting to wonder how quickly the heavy spending on hosting technology will translate into solid profits. Charter Hall shares (ASX: CHC) also shed 6.3% to $20.71 after the company's guidance was lower than analysts had expected. The technology sector was also weaker, with shares in Zip (ASX: ZIP) particularly volatile, dropping 15.7% to $2.57 after having rocketed 18.2% on Thursday when the buy now, pay later provider boasted that earnings were rising fast. There was little cheer anywhere else in the tech space with shares in WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC) losing 2% to $42.33, Afterpay owner Block (ASX: XYZ) down 2.4% to $112.27, TechnologyOne shares (ASX: TNE) down 1.4% to $32, and NextDC (ASX: NXT) shares 1.7% lower to $13.67.

Mixed signs for banks: There were mixed signs from the banking sector with Commonwealth Bank shares (ASX: CBA) up 1% to $157 and ANZ shares (ASX: ANZ) up 0.3% to $37.13. Westpac shares (ASX: WBC) were flat while National Australia Bank shares (ASX: NAB) fell 0.7% to $38.17.

Healthcare rally splutters

Even the healthcare stocks that have spent the past week rallying were hit by the US blues. Telix Pharmaceuticals shares (ASX: TLX) closed down 10.1% to $15.62, Pro Medicus shares (ASX: PME) lost 7% to $191.60 while the CSL recovery (ASX: CSL) was dented by a 1.7% fall to $168.30. The only good news in the sector came from respiratory products maker Fisher & Paykel (ASX: FPH) with shares up 1.6% to $36.31 after it lifted guidance for both profit and revenue.

Not even a rising oil price was enough to breathe some life into energy stocks, with Woodside shares (ASX: WDS) up 0.5% to $33.78 but Santos shares (ASX: STO) down 0.5% to $8.41.

Resources weaker but gold keeps shining

Resources shares were broadly weaker, led by a 0.9% fall to $65.16 by BHP shares (ASX: BHP), but gold miners surfed higher amid the US bond market worries. Regis Resources (ASX: REG) said it would pay a special dividend to reward investors and enjoyed a share price rise of 3.3% to $8.50. Other solid gold stories included Genesis Minerals (ASX: GMD), up 3.9% to $8.32 and Vault Minerals shares (ASX: VAU) up 4.5% to $6.78.

Bitcoin has also performed well amid the US bond wobbles, rising more than 4% on Friday for a weekly gain of nearly 20%.

Profit results drive share prices.

Company results continued to drive some solid rises and falls with TPG Telecom, Guzman y Gomez and Regis Resources shares up on good numbers while Charter Hall,

Perpetual, GQG, ARN Media and Inghams all tumbled on results that left investors wanting more. Shares in EQT Holdings (ASX: EQT) jumped 9.3% to $22.10 after private equity group BGH Capital lodged an unsolicited, non-binding takeover bid at $24.75 cash per share, less any dividends declared or paid. Guzman y Gomez shares (ASX: GYG) added an impressive 11.4% to $26.70 after reporting growth across its Australian restaurant operations, even though the failed US expansion led to a $26.7 million statutory net loss.

Higher chicken feed costs hurting

Shares in chicken processor Inghams (ASX: ING) fell 7.2% to $2.06 after the Middle East bout of inflation ripped through its costs, leading to a projected $30 million rise in transport and packaging and up to $50 million extra in feed costs in 2026-27. Perpetual shares (ASX: PPT) eased 1% to $19.51 after some more client withdrawals from its international strategy. TPG shares (ASX: TPG) rose 7.9% to $3.81 after the telco revealed that it had won mobile market share after entering a network sharing deal with Optus. Shares in Super Retail Group (ASX: SUL) dropped 7.6% to $13.35 on Friday after a series of broker downgrades – a far cry from the 15.1% share price surge on Thursday after it beat forecast earnings.

The week ahead

We are getting ready for the finals in the Australian earnings season with a host of companies reporting in the last big week for results.

It has been a mixed bag so far, with healthcare and technology stocks doing quite well, while the outlook for banks became more gloomy due to weaker recent mortgage volume growth.

Consumer discretionary has been hit after JB Hi-Fi provided weaker-than-expected guidance, so it will be interesting to see if these trends persist in the final week.

There are some big companies to watch out for with the supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths both set to report while Wesfarmers’ results will round out the picture for consumer spending.

The final week usually brings a few surprises, and just some of the other companies reporting include Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Ventia, Nuix, Ampol, NIB, Reece, Adairs, City Chic, Monash IVF, Endeavour Group, Ingenia, Ansell, Scentre Group, Viva Energy, Monadelphous, Woodside, G8 Education, ARB, Tabcorp, Sandfire,

Netwealth, HMC Capital, Nine Entertainment, WiseTech Global, Domino’s Pizza, Steadfast, Worley, DroneShield, Nickel Industries, Lovisa, Perseus Mining, Flight Centre, South32, Magellan, Mineral Resources, Perpetual, Karoon Energy, Atlas Arteria, Cromwell Property, Qantas, Ramsay Health Care, Star Entertainment, Smartgroup, Appen, Coventry Group, McMillan Shakespeare, Pexa and Michael Hill .

Once again, the US will be the key to market sentiment, and the world’s largest company, Nvidia, which reports on Wednesday US time, will be a big part of that.

Believe it or not, the massive chipmaker is estimated to report quarterly earnings of around US$104.5 billion, so any numbers materially above or below those estimates will feed into the AI outlook.

Other US companies to report include Intuit, Crowd Strike, Salesforce, HP, Agilent, Synopsys, Marvell Technology, Autodesk, Workday, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Best Buy, Lululemon and Hormel Foods.