Markets Live: Aussie surges amid Trump slump
Shares have opened lower, pulled down by the big banks as the Trump trade of the past months shows more signs of unwinding.
Jens is the markets and breaking news editor, based in Sydney.
Shares have opened lower, pulled down by the big banks as the Trump trade of the past months shows more signs of unwinding.
Healthcare stocks dragged the ASX to its second loss of the year after an address by Donald Trump fuelled investor uncertainty.
Losses in healthcare stocks and the supermarket giants offset gains in energy and miners, pulling the ASX down for just the second time in 2017.
Shares in troubled Bellamy's have lost further ground on broker downgrades after the baby formula supplier on Wednesday confirmed chief executive Laura McBain would leave the company and warned of lower annual earnings.
Shares ended the first week of 2017 as they finished last year: with strong gains, led by Telstra's rise to a four-month high.
Investors have started the new year in the ebullient mood they ended the last one in, driving the local sharemarket to its highest close since June 2015.
Stocks flatline as the early Santa rally runs out of puff, while gold stocks and Mayne Pharma plunge.
Business conditions have fallen to their lowest level in 19 months and consumer confidence has plunged.
Brace for the first quarter of negative economic growth in five years, and only the fourth in Australia's enviable run of 100 quarters without a recession.
RBA chief Philip Lowe is likely to take his predecessor's lead and "chill out" at the last board meeting of the year.
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