A challenging week for investors ended with Australian stocks just above 11-month lows following a second day of heavy selling as US treasury yields tested a key level.
The ASX 200 dropped 81 points or 1.16% this session to 6901, barely ten points above this month's softest close. Ten of eleven sectors declined following weakness on Wall Street overnight.
Mining, healthcare and telecommunications stocks fell hardest. Energy was the only sector to resist the drop as tensions in the Middle East kept crude well bid. Gold miners also advanced.
The index traded as low as 6878 this session as the yield on 10-year US treasuries touched 5% for the first time since 2007. The S&P 500 shed 0.85% overnight after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated inflation was too high and further rate hikes remained on the table.
Today's fall extended the ASX 200's loss for the week to 150 points or 2.1%. The index has fallen for four of the last five weeks. China's Shanghai Composite index was this afternoon on track for its worst week of the year after losing 3%.
