The Australian sharemarket slumped in the first day of trading after the King’s Birthday long weekend, erasing a good portion of last week’s 2 per cent gain, amid investor concerns over this week’s release of key US inflation data and a Federal Reserve announcement on the direction of interest rates.The S&P/ASX 200 Index tumbled 104.6 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 7755.4. Ten out of the 11 major sectors fell, with only consumer discretionary edging up by just 0.1 per cent.
Other market heavyweights also declined, with CSL down 0.9 per cent and the big four banks all falling. Commonwealth Bank lost 0.5 per cent, Westpac fell 1.1 per cent, NAB retreated 1 per cent and ANZ shed 0.9 per cent. “The markets look ahead cautiously to a back-loaded week of data. The decision is the highlight and will be prefaced by the monthly US inflation figures,” he said. “It’s widely expected that the will reduce the number of projected cuts this year. Given that it’s a near certainty that the Fed won’t adjust policy at this meeting, expecting the Fed to cut three more times from the four remaining meetings, as would be implied, stretches credulity.