Live updates: Michele Bullock begins as RBA governor, investors await overseas interest rate decisions, tech stocks send ASX lower
The Australian share market is trading lower on Monday, as investors wait for foreign central banks' next interest rates decisions this week.
Meanwhile, it is a new dawn at the Reserve Bank of Australia, with Michele Bullock beginning her first day as its governor, after taking over from Philip Lowe.
Follow the day's financial news and insights from our specialist business reporters on our live blog.
Disclaimer: this blog is not intended as investment advice.
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By Kate Ainsworth
Here's how things are faring as of 12:30pm AEST:
Live updates on the major ASX indices:
By Kate Ainsworth
The Australian sharemarket is continuing to trade lower on Monday, down 0.7% to 7,231 points as of 12:40pm AEST.
(For live figures, head to the top of the blog and open up the pinned post.)
All of the 11 sectors are in the red, with technology leading the falls, down 1.6%.
Xero is down by 3.8%, and WiseTech Global has shed 2.5%.
Energy is down 1.4%, and industrials and academic and educational services down 1.2% each.
Health care has the smallest loss, only shedding 0.3%, with utilities, basic materials and real estate dipping by 0.4% each.
The top five performers so far:
The bottom five performers:
By Kate Ainsworth
If current losses hold, Aussie tech stocks could see their biggest fall since August 25, after dipping by 2.8% this morning.
The fall in Australian tech stocks follows the losses on Wall Street on Friday, with the Nasdaq down 1.6% after chipmakers and megacap growth companies dropped.
Software company Xero has fallen by as much as 4.1% so far, while WiseTech Global and Altium have slid by as much as 2.9% and 2.7% respectively.
It's certainly one to keep an eye on throughout the day, that's for sure 👀
By Kate Ainsworth
Whitehaven Coal has issued a statement on the ASX confirming it is in talks to buy the Daunia and Blackwater coal mines in Queensland from the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance.
The statement from the mining company follows a report in today's Australian Financial Review, and says the process is "ongoing".
"As communicated in Whitehaven's FY23 Results Announcement on 24 August, Whitehaven's share buy-back has been temporarily suspended while the company is considering application of its capital allocation framework in light of growth opportunities," the company said.
"Whitehaven confirms that those opportunities include the Daunia and Blackwater mines.
"Whitehaven will continue to keep the market informed in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations."
By Kate Ainsworth
Chevron says full production has resumed at its Wheatstone LNG facility in Western Australia, after a fault last week saw production cut by around a fifth.
Wheatstone is one of the Chevron facilities affected by 24-hour workers strikes, along with its Gorgon site, with the strikes beginning over the weekend.
The two LNG facilities account for over 5% of global supply, and the strikers were an escalation of what had been six days of brief work stoppages and limited bans on certain tasks.
"Chevron Australia confirms full production resumed last night (September 17) at the Wheatstone Gas Facility following a fault on September 14," a Chevron spokesperson said in a statement.
"During this time LNG continued to be produced at approximately 80% of usual rates, and vessel loading continued.
"There has been no change to scheduled LNG deliveries. Domestic gas facilities and supply were unaffected."
Chevron has asked the Fair Work Commission to intervene in the ongoing dispute over wages and conditions in a bid to cancel the strikes. The commission will hold a hearing on Friday.
The strikes were set to run until the end of this month but the Offshore Alliance union, a coalition of two unions, on Saturday flagged they intend to file a notice with Chevron to extend their work stoppage plans.
By Kate Ainsworth
There's a couple of reasons why, but a big one has been news that Perseus Mining has extended the life of a gold mine in West Africa until 2035.
Perseus issued a statement on the ASX this morning that it's extended the operational life of its Yaouré Gold Mine in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, for at least 12 years (until 2035) with the potential for further extension if there are additional discoveries.
"When Perseus acquired Yaouré as a development project in 2016, the possibility of extending the life of the mine through development of an underground operation was not part of the plan," CEO Jeff Quartermaine said.
"However, our discovery, and subsequent engineering and planning, that has led to today's announcement, bears testament to Perseus's in-house ability to create significant value through organic growth."
That's given gold miners (and investors) a solid boost in sentiment.
It also comes off the back of gold futures being higher at the end of last week — although they are somewhat subdued this morning.
By Kate Ainsworth
The ASX has followed Wall Street's lead and opened lower on Monday, down 0.6% to 7,235 points at 10:25am AEST.
(For live figures at any time, jump to the post at the very top of the blog.)
All sectors are in the red, with academic and educational services down the most, falling 1.5%.
Energy has dipped 1.2%, while technology and consumer non-cyclicals are down 1.1% each.
Basic materials has suffered the smallest drop, down by 0.1%.
The top early performers so far:
The bottom five performers so far:
By Kate Ainsworth
Here's how things are shaping up as of 10:15am AEST:
Live updates on the major ASX indices:
By Kate Ainsworth
Buy now, pay later company Zip has tapped a former Westpac finance executive as its next chief financial officer.
Gordon Bell will replace Martin Brooke, who steps down from the role on September 29.
Mr Bell will formally begin as Zip's CFO on October 2.
"We look forward to welcoming an executive of Gordon's calibre and experience to Zip's group executive team," Zip's managing director and group CEO Cynthia Scott said.
"His track record of deep financial services and capital markets experience and demonstrated financial and people leadership shills will help us execute on our strategy and deliver valuable returns for all stakeholders."
By Kate Ainsworth
The federal government has released new figures to try and shut down growing calls to introduce nuclear power into Australia's future energy mix from the Opposition.
The government's current plan is to invest in clean energy projects through what's known as "Rewiring the Nation" at a cost of $20 billion.
But the opposition has argued nuclear is cheaper and more reliable.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen says new analysis shows introducing nuclear power to replace retiring coal-fired power stations would cost $387 billion.
"The opposition is proposing small modular reactors, which are 300 mega watts each which means you need a lot of them to replace the retiring coal-fired power," he said.
"In fact, you need 71 of these reactors to replace 21 gigawatts of coal fire power we have in the system.
"It's a unicorn and a fantasy."
By Kate Ainsworth
In a statement posted on the ASX, the Commonwealth Bank says the Federal Court has approved a $50 million settlement sum over a consumer credit insurance (CCI) class action launched in June 2020.
The $50 million settlement sum is in line with what CBA announced on November 14 last year.
The CCI class action related to consumer credit insurance for credit cards and personal loans sold between January 1, 2010 and March 7, 2018.
According to Slater and Gordon, which was behind the class action, CBA:
By Kate Ainsworth
It feels like we've been talking about it forever, but today is day one of Michele Bullock's seven-year term as RBA governor.
She's officially taken over from Philip Lowe, who left the central bank at the end of last week after a seven-year term as governor himself, on top of decades spent working there in various roles.
As for how the RBA will see its new dawn, it'll be a pretty muted affair.
We're still two weeks away from the RBA's next meeting on interest rates (October 3, if you haven't got it in the diary).
But the RBA will release the minutes from its most recent meeting earlier this month, when the central bank barely shifted the dial from its monetary policy stance in its August meeting.
As for who is set to replace Michele Bullock as deputy governor? There's no word yet, although the search is thought to be continuing.
By Kate Ainsworth
Here's how the markets are looking as of 8:30am AEST:
By Kate Ainsworth
Good morning and welcome to Monday, September 18 — it's a new week, and you're reading the ABC's business and markets blog, and it's great to have your company.
Let's start with where the overseas markets finished the week.
In the US, Wall Street fell on Friday as investors bided their time ahead of the Federal Reserve's latest interest rates meeting coming up this week (that's happening late on Wednesday, Australian time).
The Dow was 0.8% lower on Friday, the S&P500 fell by 1.2%, and the Nasdaq slipped by 1.6%.
Meanwhile European stocks had their strongest day in six months, as the European Central Bank signalled an end to rate hikes was edging closer.
The pan-European Stoxx600 rose 1.5%, buoyed by the ECB's decision and stronger commodity prices.
It's not just the Fed who will have interest rate decisions this week — investors are also keenly watching for the Bank of England's rate decision on Thursday, and the Bank of Japan's decision on Friday.
As for what it means back home? The ASX is in for a weaker start, with futures trending down this morning.
That said, commodities businesses are set to do well, with the price of Brent crude reaching a 10-month high, while iron ore futures at at a six-month high.
Also, today is a new day at the RBA — it's Michele Bullock's first day as governor, after Philip Lowe left the central bank last week.
Let's settle in and see what Monday has in store, shall we?
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