The laggards

South32 (down 4.2 per cent) was the biggest large-cap decliner, followed by medical equipment supplier EBOS Group (down 4.1 per cent) and IDP Education (down 3.5 per cent).

Gold miners Newmont (down 2.7 per cent), Northern Star (down 3.2 per cent) and Evolution (down 2.9 per cent) were weaker despite rallying in recent weeks.

Information technology (down 0.5 per cent) was the weakest sector, as WiseTech shed 0.6 per cent, Xero lost 0.9 per cent and TechnologyOne fell 0.9 per cent.

Utilities (down 0.5 per cent) and consumer staples (down 0.4 per cent) also declined as AGL lost 2.1 per cent and supermarket giant Woolworths shed 1.1 per cent.

The lowdown

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Capital.com senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda said the S&P/ASX 200 was a relative underperformer and failed to keep pace with Japanese and Chinese share benchmarks and extend its rally following Tuesday’s decision by the Reserve Bank not to lift interest rates.

“Gold stocks have been the worst performers after the US dollar firmed yesterday, courtesy of a tumbling in yen,” Rodda said.

While Australia’s mining giants, including heavyweights BHP (up 0.5 per cent) and Rio Tinto (up 0.8 per cent), bolstered the local bourse, the country’s big four banks gave back some of their earlier gains. CBA and NAB both dropped 0.1 per cent, Westpac fell 0.3 per cent and ANZ slid 0.4 per cent.

Overnight, the S&P 500 hit another record, rising 29.09 points, or 0.6 per cent, and topping its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones jumped 0.8 per cent and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.4 per cent.

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All three indexes erased losses from earlier in the day to climb.

Nvidia swung through the day and went from one of the heaviest weights on the market to one of its strongest propellants. Its massive size gives it outsized sway on indexes, and it went from a loss of nearly 4 per cent to a gain of 1.1 per cent.

Much of the focus was on the Federal Reserve, which began its latest meeting on interest rates and will announce its decision on Wednesday (US time).

The widespread expectation is for the US central bank to leave its main interest rate unchanged at a two-decade high. The hope is that the Fed will indicate it still expects to cut rates three times later this year, as it hinted a few months ago.

But recent reports on inflation have consistently been coming in worse than expected. That could force the Fed to say it will deliver fewer rate cuts this year, and traders have already given up earlier expectations that the year’s first cut would arrive on Wednesday.

Treasury yields eased in the bond market ahead of the announcement. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.29 per cent from 4.33 per cent late on Monday.

Bitcoin’s price has been generally sliding since hitting a peak above $US73,000 last week.

In stock markets elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.7 per cent after the Bank of Japan hiked its benchmark interest rate for the first time in 17 years. In a historic move, the bank moved the rate back to a range of zero to 0.1 per cent and made other changes, ending a long experiment of rates below zero meant to boost the economy and inflation.

Stocks fell 1.2 per cent in Hong Kong and 0.7 per cent in Shanghai after troubled property developer China Evergrande Group said Beijing’s market watchdog fined it 4.2 billion yuan ($910 million) for allegedly falsifying its revenue, among other violations.

Tweet of the day

Quote of the day

“One generation, or 20 years ago, tenure limits of nine to 12 years had become widespread. Directors generally do and expect to serve their full tenure. But perhaps it’s now time to evolve our thinking again,” said former Commonwealth Bank and Telstra chair Catherine Livingstone, who warned that rigidity at the top level of companies is hurting the talent pool.

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With AP

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