Fellow miners, including Pilbara Minerals (down 3.3 per cent) and Mineral Resources (down 2.1 per cent) were also among the worst-performing mega-cap stocks, while iron ore heavyweights BHP (down 0.3 per cent) and Fortescue (down 0.5 per cent) also declined.

The energy sector (down 1.6 per cent) slid as Whitehaven Coal shares dropped 4 per cent and Woodside edged down 2.1 per cent after it agreed to buy the Gulf Coast Driftwood LNG project in the US for $US900 million ($1.3 billion).

The lowdown

Capital.com senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda said the ASX 200 was weaker for a third straight day.

“The market is being swept up in the reversal in risk sentiment happening across the globe, with miners and energy weighing on the market after a pullback in commodity prices on Friday on Wall Street,” he said. “In the longer run, market sentiment will likely remain cautious, as it always is, heading into a US presidential election.”

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index tumbled 0.7 per cent on Friday to close its first losing week in the past three and its worst since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.9 per cent while the Nasdaq Composite index sank 0.8 per cent.

US investors will start the week scrambling to decide if President Biden’s decision to end his re-election campaign and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris increases or decreases Republican candidate Donald Trump’s chances of regaining the presidency.

“The first-order impact of this announcement should be more uncertainty, which typically puts markets in a risk-off mode – with a sell-off in equities and a flight-to-quality bid coming through,” said Zachary Griffiths, head of US investment grade and macro strategy at CreditSights.

Investors in recent weeks have generally favoured trades benefiting from Trump’s advocacy of looser fiscal policy, higher trade tariffs and weaker regulations on bets that he will win the election. That’s taken the form of support for the US dollar, rising US bond yields and gains in bank, health and energy stocks, as well as Bitcoin.

The question for investors is whether to stick with such trades now that Biden has dropped his re-election bid.

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“If Vice President Harris can mobilise quickly to give Trump a material run, then we should expect volatility to linger,” Dave Mazza, chief executive of Roundhill Financial, said before Sunday’s announcement.

Smaller stocks and companies whose profits are closely tied to the economy’s strength have been rising. That has sparked hopes for a market where more stocks were rising rather than just a handful of dominating elites, which market watchers say would be healthier.

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Quote of the day

“How long before [Wilkie Creek mine] finds a new owner remains one of many unanswered questions in a messy corporate tale,” writes this masthead’s senior correspondent Anne Hyland, unpacking the story behind a $180 million deal which was meant to rebuild Remagen Capital managing director Simon Raftery’s fortunes.

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Woodside, the largest Australian oil and gas company, has agreed to buy a huge liquefied gas export terminal under construction in the United States, doubling down on demand for the fuel even as the world tackles climate change.

AP, Bloomberg