ASX 200 Slides for Fourth Straight Session as Earnings Season Heats Up and Wall Street Pulls Back From Highs

SYDNEY — Australian shares fell for a fourth consecutive session Monday as a heavy slate of corporate earnings reports collided with a softer lead from Wall Street and lingering unease over Middle East tensions weighing on oil markets.

The S&P/ASX 200 was trading at 9,084.2 points, down 31.0 points or 0.34%, as of 1:56 p.m. AEST, extending a losing streak that has now stretched through the second week of the country's peak corporate reporting period.

The benchmark had opened the session on a weak footing after ASX 200 futures pointed to a decline of roughly 33 points, or 0.36%, ahead of the open. The index briefly touched a decline near 0.33% mid-morning before drifting to session lows in early afternoon trade.

Monday's retreat followed a mixed finish on Wall Street last Friday, where major U.S. indexes eased from record highs reached earlier in the week. The S&P 500 slipped 0.17%, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.28% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.20%, according to closing data. The Russell 2000 bucked the trend with a 0.51% gain. Despite the pullback, the S&P 500 still closed out a third straight weekly advance, its longest winning streak since May, after a stretch of strong second-quarter corporate profit growth power its run to fresh highs.

Soft U.S. retail sales and consumer sentiment data released Friday contributed to the pullback in American equities, dampening some of the momentum built during a corporate earnings season that has significantly outpaced expectations. Second-quarter profit growth for S&P 500 companies came in around 31% year-over-year, well ahead of the roughly 23% analysts had projected heading into the reporting period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Oil prices climbed heading into the weekend after U.S. officials signaled they were preparing tougher economic measures against Iran amid continued attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington was preparing measures not seen "in the history of economic isolation," part of what he described as a coordinated push alongside an extended naval blockade of Iranian ports.

In Sydney, Monday's session was dominated by a wave of full-year and half-year results from ASX-listed companies navigating a period marked by resilient consumer demand in some sectors and cost pressures in others.

Electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi reported record full-year sales of $11.06 billion, up 4.8%, with net profit after tax rising 2.9% to $489.9 million. The company lifted its final dividend 21% to 127 cents per share fully franked, though it flagged softer trading in July, with JB Hi-Fi Australia sales down 0.5% and The Good Guys down 1.7% amid supplier price increases and technology stock shortages.

Steelmaker BlueScope Steel posted a sharp jump in full-year earnings, with reported net profit after tax surging 857% to $802 million, driven by stronger U.S. steel spreads and a record performance from its Southeast Asian operations. The company declared a final ordinary dividend of 65 cents per share plus a 70-cent special dividend.

Rail freight operator Aurizon Holdings lifted its full-year dividend per share by 46% to 23.0 cents after underlying net profit climbed 24% to $433 million on the back of a record performance from its bulk freight division. Separately, Aurizon confirmed it had recontracted a major coal haulage agreement with BHP Mitsubishi Alliance covering up to 37 million tonnes annually for as long as 12 years.

Dairy and infant formula company a2 Milk reported group revenue up 12.4% to nearly $2 billion for the year, though shares in the New Zealand-listed stock fell almost 10% after the company guided to below-consensus earnings for the coming financial year. The company cited a fourth-quarter supply chain disruption that hit China label infant formula sales, saying in its results statement that "the key contributing factors have been resolved, and we are focused on executing our recovery plan."

Property group GPT lifted management earnings on the back of strong like-for-like income growth across its office, retail and logistics portfolios, while mining services firm IMDEX posted record annual results, with revenue climbing 21% to $520 million and normalized earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization up 29%. IMDEX said in its results commentary that it "enters FY27 with more growth levers available than at any time in its history."

Fund manager L1 Group, in its first results since merging with Platinum Asset Management, reported underlying net profit after tax nearly doubling to $188.8 million, aided by strong fund performance and a one-off performance fee.

Elsewhere in commodity markets, copper continued to trade at unusually elevated levels on the London Metal Exchange, with the spot contract commanding a premium of as much as $370 a tonne over September futures — the widest such spread since a similar squeeze in 2021 — as exchange warehouse stockpiles fell for a 42nd consecutive day.

Currency markets showed hedge funds continuing to unwind bearish bets against the Japanese yen following coordinated intervention by U.S. and Japanese authorities, though leveraged funds still held a substantial short position as of the most recent week of data.

Trading volumes on the Australian market remained elevated Monday as investors digested the flow of earnings reports, with more companies scheduled to report results throughout the week as the reporting season moves toward its peak.