ASX 200 afternoon report: 1 February 2024

The ASX 200 trades 80.50 points (-1.06%) lower at 7600 at 2.30 pm AEDT.

Just a day after making a fresh record high at 7682.3, the ASX 200 has slumped in a heap today, giving back most of yesterday's stunning gains following a hasty retreat from the bulls on Wall Street overnight.

The soft session on Wall Street came after this morning's FOMC meeting disappointed optimists hoping for a Fed rate cut in March. Compounded by risk aversion flows stemming from earnings misses from mega tech companies, Microsoft, Alphabet and AMD.

For the chart watchers, today's sell-off on the ASX 200 leaves Wednesday's push to fresh all-time highs, exposed as a false break high – a fate consigned to two-thirds of all breakouts. Of course, the other one-third of breakouts tend to run a lot further than hoped for, and for this scenario to play out, the ASX 200 must not see a sustained break below horizontal support at 7570.

Today's market movement

While all eleven sectors are trading lower, the damage was concentrated across a handful of ASX 200 sectors, including the IT sector.

IT sector

• Apen: -4.62% to $0.31c
• Zip: -2.67% to $0.73c
• Novonix: -2.65% to $0.55c
• Wisetech: -2.62% to $0.71c

Financial sector

The promise of an eleventh straight week of gains for the ASX 200 financial sector appears unlikely as sellers raced to lock in profits in the big banks.

• CBA: -1.85% to $115.37
• Westpac: - 1.30% to $23.86
• NAB: -1.2% to $32.21
• Macquarie: -1.15% to $188.26
• ANZ: -0.40% to $27.09

Mining sector

• Mineral Resources: -2.35% to $58.54
• Coronado Global: -2% to $1.60
• New Hope: -1.2% to $5.33
• Fortescue: -1.1% to $29.56
• Rio Tinto: -0.66% to $132.05
• BHP: -0.44% to $47.06

Energy sector

Energy stocks are trading lower after crude oil slumped 2.29% overnight to below $76.00 as a rise in US crude inventories, a weak Chinese PMI, and a possible cease-fire in Gaza weighed.

• Santos: -1.27% to $7.75
• Woodside: -0.93% to $32.11
• Beach Energy: -0.15% to $1.65

Gold sector

Gold stocks usually provide a safe port to ride out rough conditions. Not today, despite the price of bullion climbing today to $2046 (+0.37%).

• Gold Road Resources: -2.96% to $1.47
• Perseus Mining: -1.94% to $1.77
• Regis Resources: -2.15% to $2.04
• Evolution Mining: -1.25% to $3.17

ASX 200 daily chart

• _{Source: TradingView. The figures stated are as of 1 February 2024. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. This report does not contain and is not to be taken as containing any financial product advice or financial product recommendation.}