Australian shares fell 53 points, or 0.6%, to 8,697 in Tuesday morning trade, erasing modest gains from the previous session as overnight losses on Wall Street weighed on sentiment. A sharp selloff in AI-related stocks followed industry warnings about emerging risks, while a spike in oil prices briefly pushed U.S. Treasury yields to 5%.
Investors also turned cautious ahead of key data releases from major trading partner China due later today, including August new home prices, industrial production, and retail sales. Domestically, persistent cost pressures and expectations of extended monetary tightening by the Reserve Bank of Australia continued to shape the outlook, with markets assigning a 90% probability to a rate hike this month.
Sector-wise, healthcare, non-energy minerals, and energy minerals led the declines, though gains in consumer-related stocks, logistics, and services helped contain the overall losses. Among major financials, the big four banks slipped between 0.5% and 0.8%, while BHP Group dropped 2.3%, Macquarie fell 1.9%, and Evolution Mining lost 3.8%. In contrast, Wisetech Global rose 3.2%, Xero gained 3.0%, REA Group advanced 2.1%, and CSL added 1.2%.
