As Australian shares are hit with a major sell-off, Sky News has unlocked Business Now to watch live as leading financial experts dissect the $100b+ wipeout on the ASX.
The market closed on Monday about 4.2 per cent down in a sharp sell-off reacting to Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs.
More than $8 trillion was wiped off US markets on Thursday and Friday local time, which then flowed onto the Australian and Asian security exchanges.
The head of investment at Perpetual Matthew Sherwood said there was uncertainty about where the markets would go from here.
“No one knows where the bottom is considering the unprecedented nature of what’s triggered these declines,” Mr Sherwood told Sky News’ Business Now.
“We have to go back only six weeks and the US share market wasn’t far from a record high and it’s about 17 per cent below that record high.”
The Nikkei 225 in Japan plummeted before even opening on Monday, triggering rare circuit breaker legislation on the Tokyo Stock Exchange that paused trading for 10 minutes.
It finished sits down about seven per cent on Monday, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 12 per cent and SSE in Shanghai fell more than 7.2 per cent so far.
Sky News Business Reporter Ed Boyd noted circuit breaker legislation was used across other exchanges as markets were plummeting.
“The falls were so bad on Japan’s Nikkei, Taiwan’s Weighted Index and South Korea’s Kospi 200 that all three exchanges hit their circuit breakers and were temporarily paused from trading for a short amount of time,” Boyd said.
“The last time we’ve seen that is March 2020 and it’s worth noting the US narrowly avoided the same circuit breaker trigger last Friday when the market fell more than six per cent, just under the seven per cent trading threshold.”
The more than $85b taken off the ASX quickly triggered a panic regarding Australians’ savings, while also firming predictions of multiple rate hikes this year.
Sky News Australia’s Business Editor Ross Greenwood will break down the market’s performance today and the broader implications for the Australian economy.
Joining him on the market’s reaction to the tariffs is head of multi-assets investment strategy at Perpetual Limited Matt Sherwood, as well as HSBC ANZ chief economist Paul Bloxham.
Senior economist at REA Group Eleanor Creagh is breaking down the impact of the massive market falls on Australia’s property market.
