Running discussion on SP, page-70111

The pant sh!tters here today need to understand how the rest of the market performed today.  Lots of miners were caned ....

https://thewest.com.au/business/mar...tors-sweat-on-rate-hike-from-us-fed-c-6679349

Markets wrap: ASX directionless as investors sweat on rate hike from US Fed
Alex DruceNCA NewsWire
Wed, 4 May 2022 5:32PM


The Australian sharemarket started strong on Wednesday but drifted lower ahead of what many were tipping to be the largest US interest rate hike in more than two decades.
The benchmark ASX 200 jumped 0.7 per cent at the opening bell but quickly lost steam and eventually ended 11.5 points, or 0.2 per cent, lower at 7304.7 for a third straight decline.
The broader All Ordinaries finished 22.8 points, or 0.3 per cent down, at 7564.8, while strong retail and lending data supported the Australian dollar above 71 US cents.

Mining companies were particularly strong out of the gate but badly fell by the wayside with real estate firms, technology stocks and consumer discretionaries such as Woolworths, Wesfarmers, JB Hi-Fi and ARB Corp.
OANDA Asia-Pacific senior analyst Jeffrey Halley said it was a quiet day across regional markets thanks to holidays in mainland China, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, while those investors on deck were likely waiting anxiously for news from the US Fed.
Market consensus was for the US Federal Reserve to lift the official cash rate on Wednesday evening Australian time by 50 basis points from 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent as it faces a serious inflation battle.
The Fed started its rate hike cycle in March and, much like the Reserve Bank of Australia, is expected to deliver several interest rate rises over the coming months to bring consumer prices back under control.
Mr Halley said the crux of chairman Jerome Powell’s statement would be in the forward guidance and whether the Fed would taper its bond-buying program.
“Markets, perhaps like the Fed, are clinging to the hope that the terminal Fed Funds rate is mostly priced into the market now,” Mr Halley said.
“There remain definite upside risks to that point of view, as there are across much of the Anglo-Saxon world.

“Perhaps the only mitigating factor will be the start of quantitative tightening by the Fed. That may have more of an impact than Fed Fund hikes if it starts pushing the US yield curve higher once again.”
On local shores, the big miners gave up early gains and reversed lower midmorning.
City Index analyst Tony Sycamore noted that China’s damaging Covid lockdown had created a massive amount of short-term uncertainty around commodity prices and for the ASX 200 materials sector, which is now 10 per cent below its April highs.
BHP dropped 0.6 per cent to $47.40, Rio Tinto lost 0.7 per cent to $111.11, while Fortescue Metals went even further with a 2.4 per cent fall to $20.12.
Mineral Resources handed back 3.3 per cent to $54.24 and BlueScope Steel was 1.6 per cent down at $19.30.

Once again, lithium players and gold miners were weaker.