Markets live updates: Around 80 companies affected by hours-long ASX publishing outage

3h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 1:44amMarket snapshotASX 200: -0.3% to 8,586 points (live values below)Australian dollar: +0.1% to 65.52 US centsWall Street (Friday): S&P500 +0.5%, Dow +0.6%, Nasdaq +0.7%Europe (Friday): Dax -0.3%, FTSE +0.3%, Eurostoxx +0.3%Spot gold: +0.3% to $US4,242/ounceBrent crude: +1.1% at $US63.09/barrelIron ore (Friday): -0.9% to $US102.50/tonneBitcoin: -4.1% at $US87,436

Prices current at around 12:40pm AEDT

Live updates on the major ASX indices:

25m agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 4:24amMetcash tumbles 9.5% after trading delay

Metcash finally got the go ahead for its shares to start trading after an ASX glitch put the company in a halt, but the supermarket chain probably wishes it could have remained suspended a while longer.

At 2:18pm when the suspension was lifted, a backlog of frustrated sell orders came flooding in and Metcash plummeted close to 10%.

The share price has recovered a bit from its intraday low of $3.28 to be sitting at $3.34 with an hour’s trading to go.

The market was well aware of Metcash’s flat interim profit and disappointing performance in its hardware and liquor divisions having seen the results before the ASX announcements page froze at 9am.

With the Metcash investor presentation still caught up in the glitch and not released, the ASX put Metcash and around 80 other companies into trading halts until it sorted things out in the back office.

Metcash share price today (LSEG, ASX)

35m agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 4:14am

How Australia’s home prices have tracked over last 25 years

As we’ve been reporting today, Cotality’s latest data shows national dwelling values up 1% last month — taking the median value to $888,941.11.

To zoom out just a few decades — here’s what the price growth looks like over the past 25 years:

46m agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 4:03amRising home prices could lead to “early” and more rate hikes: UBS

The big investment bank UBS says the on-going rise in home prices could lead to the RBA going “early” in hiking interest rates next year.

UBS had already changed its rates outlook to project the ‘next move is up’, with first rate hike in Q4, 2026.

It also expects another hike in Q1, 2027 which would take the official cash rate to 4.1%.

National home prices, as surveyed by Cotality, rose 1% over November to be almost 7% higher year-on-year.

“(The) housing boom already saw macro-pru tightening; but could also see RBA hike rates ‘early’,” UBS economist George Tharenou wrote in a note to clients.

Mr Tharenou also pointed our rising house prices generally lead to higher construction inflation, often nine months down the track.

“This spike in home prices is lifting overall household wealth; as well resulting in a leveraging cycle,” Mr Tharenou said.

“Hence, the risks to our RBA view have already shifted to an earlier rate hike by ~mid-26; as well as the risk of more hikes than our forecast of a 50bps cycle by Q1 2027.”

1h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 3:40amBusiness Indicators have mixed messages for GDP

A weaker than expected private non-farm inventories figure will be a significant drag on the Q3 GDP result to be released on Thursday.

The unexpected 0.9% drawdown on inventories is likely to carve 0.3 percentage points off GDP over the quarter, however with still two more GDP partials – government finances and balance of payments – to be released tomorrow, most market economists are unwilling to change their forecasts just yet.

One the wage front, business wages increased by a strong 1.5% across the quarter to be 6.3% higher over the year.

Company profits were flat, or down 1.7% adjusting for inventories – largely due to a large drawdown in mining inventories.

For the record, the consensus pick is for GDP growth to come in at 0.7% over the quarter and 2.2% year-on-year.

Here’s some commentary on today’s figures.

Adelaide Trimball (ANZ): The Q3 Business Indicators report has offset the upside risk to our GDP forecast following the release of capex and construction work done data last week. This weakness is not uniform though; some components of the BI release were softer than expected, while others came in strongerAshwin Clarke (CBA): Today’s partial updates on company profits, businesses’ wages bill, and private non farm inventories have not materially shifted the dial for our Q3 25 GDP forecast. At this stage we continue to look for real GDP growth in Q3 25 of 0.7%/qtr and 2.2%/yr.Taylor Nugent (NAB): Private inventories fell 0.9% qoq against NAB and consensus expectations for little change. That implies a 0.3ppt subtraction from Q3 growth. While at face value that skews the risk to the downside of our 0.7% qoq expectation for Q3 GDP growth, swings in inventories are often offset elsewhere in the accounts.Tom Ryan (J.P. Morgan): Weaker-than-forecast inventories present a headwind for GDP accounting, but the concentration in mining suggests real export growth is likely stronger than we had penciled in. Accordingly, we view inventory/net trade dynamics as broadly offsetting and maintain our 0.5%q/q 3Q real GDP forecast pending tomorrow’s trade and government spending data.1h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 3:05amChina’s manufacturing activity contracts further

China’s manufacturing activity has gone into reverse, dragged down by slower new orders and a stalling output.

The private sector PMI, compiled by RatingDog and S&P Global, dropped below 50 points, the breakeven point between expansion and contraction, in November.

The result backs up the “official” NBS PMI survey which recorded an even sharper slide in activity, its eighth consecutive month of contraction.

“On the demand side, although new export orders picked up in November, this trend failed to reverse the sluggish state of the manufacturing sector,” RatingDog founder Yao Yu said.

Capital Economics China economist Zichun Huang, said averaging the PMIs the headline reading declined from 49.8 to a four-month low of 49.5.

“The PMIs suggest that construction activity recovered somewhat, probably due to an easing of weather-related disruptions,” Mr Huang said.

“But the surveys point to a continued loss of momentum in the wider economy, with slower growth across both manufacturing and services.”

Mr Huang said he expects Chinese growth to stay subdued next year.

“Fiscal support looks set to offer less of a lift to growth, and the recent appreciation of the trade-weighted renminbi is likely to offset much of the boost from the US-China trade truce,” he noted.

2h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 2:24amBusinesses now need to register to send branded texts

If your phone is anything like mine at the moment, you’re receiving an onslaught of texts from every retailer you’ve ever purchased something from, promoting their Cyber Monday sales — many delivered from a brand name, rather than a number.

Soon, however, organisations will need to register for the privilege of texting under their name, in new measures from the communications regulator, as part of efforts to crackdown on scams.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) says organisations that use so-called “branded identifiers” in their SMS messages (for example, myGov or AusPost) will need to register their sender IDs with their telco provider ahead of the launch of the SMS Sender ID Register on July 1 next year.

ACMA says it won’t just protect consumers receiving the texts, but also brands from being impersonated.

Organisations that don’t register in by July 1 2026 will have their sender IDs replaced by the word “unverified”, and grouped together in a message thread with other unverified texts.

Impersonation texts will soon be identified as ‘unverified’ (ABC News: Nicholas McElroy)

“This will alert recipients that the text is a potential scam,” ACMA said in a release.

“Anyone using sender IDs must act now to prepare for these changes and get their sender ID registered to take advantage of the new protections,” said ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin, noting banks, medical and dental surgeries, retailers, utility providers and not-for-profits were among those that could be affected.

“If a legitimate organisation does not register their sender ID, their messages could be mistaken for a scam, disrupting customer communications and affecting brand reputation.”

2h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 2:04am

ASX continues to slide, down 0.3%

The ASX 200 has continued its slow slide downhill, down 0.3% at 1:00pm AEDT.

ASX 200 today (LSEG, ASX)

Real estate and the big miners in the materials sector have made gains, but not enough to offset losses across the likes of healthcare, financials and industrials.

ASX 200 by sector (LSEG, ASX)

The big end of town in the ASX top 20 is outperforming the broader market, down just 0.1%.

There’s an even split in performance with 10 stocks up and 10 down.

Goodman Group (+2.0%) is the best of the blue chips, while BHP (+1%) and Rio Tinto (+0.9%) are also higher.

Woodside (+0.9%) has gained on higher oil prices today.

ASX top 20 top movers (LSEG, ASX)

The laggards include the big banks ANZ (-14%) and Westpac (-1.2%), while healthcare heavyweight CSL’s decline (-1.4%) is a big part of its sub-index decline.

ASX top 20 bottom movers (LSEG, ASX)2h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 1:59amAbout 80 companies affected: ASX

In response to questions from the ABC, the ASX has confirmed it “urgently investigating” the issue that has been affecting the publication of company announcements since just before 9am AEDT — with about 80 companies affected.

The stock exchange operator says its trading platform remains open and commenced as normal, and clearing and settlement processes are not affected.

“ASX apologises for the disruption from this event and we are seeking to resolve this as soon as possible,” a spokesperson said.

An initial fix means some announcements lodged from 11:22am AEDT have now been published but earlier announcements are still not out.

“Companies that lodged price sensitive announcements were placed into a trading halt and were contacted directly by ASX,” the spokesperson said.

“As at midday, we understand approximately 80 companies had price sensitive announcements.

“Halted securities will only resume trading once the associated announcement has been published…

“Based on available information, ASX does not believe this technical issue with the announcements platform is cyber-related.”

It is publishing updates on its website.

3h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 1:44amASX issues ongoing, according to error message

Here’s what the ASX website has to say on the publishing outage, as we’ve seen a couple of dozen announcements published after a three hour gap.

“ASX has implemented an initial remediation and commenced processing company announcements received since 11:22 AEDT,” its website message reads.

“Earlier announcements remain impacted. We apologise for the disruption from this event and we are seeking to resolve this as soon as possible.”

So that’s a more than two-hour period that investors relying on ASX announcements remain in the dark about.

We’ve put questions to the stock exchange operator and will keep you updated.

3h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 1:38amCompany profits flat in Q3, wages up 1.5%

The ABS business indicators show company profits were relatively flat over the third quarter and up only 1.1% over the year.

Wages and salaries rose 1.5% over the quarter, while inventories dropped 0.9% which is likely to lop around 0.35 percentage points off Q3 GDP which will be released on Wednesday.

The big rundown inventories came in the mining sector, which as IFM chief economist Alex Joiner points out, could be paid back to GDP growth via higher exports.

3h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 1:31amASX announcements filtering through after three-hour outage

Our blog master Stephen Letts has been keeping an eye on the ASX announcement page and from about 10 minutes ago, it seems company announcements are coming through again.

By a quick count, there are just shy of 30 announcements published so far, after the more than three hour gap.

The error message remains at the top of the ASX website, however. And no ASX announcement from the exchange operator. Its shares are down about 2.4%, while the broader index is off 0.3%.

Steve says the biggest surprise from the earlier ‘test page’ publication was the ASX’s font choice of ClassGarmnd … he was expecting Comic Sans.

Loading3h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 1:17amJob ads continue to slide

The number of job ads fell 0.8% in November, marking the fifth consecutive monthly decline.

ANZ-Indeed Job Advertisements series in now 6.3% lower than a year ago.

“Labour market conditions continue to soften,” Indeed economist Callam Pickering said.

“There is a risk of higher unemployment in the coming months.”

Job advertisements are regarded as a forward-looking measure of labour demand.

“The ongoing fall in the ANZ-Indeed measure, along with the recent slowdown in employment growth, raises the possibility of a higher unemployment rate in the near-term,” Mr Pickering said

“Seasonal hiring in retail began to unwind in November, but in food preparation & service roles opportunities continued to grow. Job Ads for both sectors normally fall sharply in December.”

Job Ads fell across most states and territories in November, with the largest decline in Victoria.

“Over the past year, the fall in Job Ads has been concentrated in Queensland and Victoria, with New South Wales also underperforming,” Mr Pickering said.

“Western Australia continues to outperform national trends.”

“Seasonal hiring in retail began to unwind in November, but in food preparation & service roles opportunities continued to grow. Job Ads for both sectors normally fall sharply in December.”

Despite softer labour market conditions, Mr Pickering said it will have few, if any immediate implications for monetary policy and interest rates.

“While softer labour market figures are concerning, rate cuts won’t be given any consideration when the RBA meets next week.”

“The latest inflation figures were nasty and the RBA should give serious consideration to hiking rates at their next meeting.

“It’s not the Christmas present anyone wants, but it is undeniable that inflation has picked up faster and higher than the RBA expected.

“Waiting until February seems ill-advised in the current inflation climate.”

3h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 1:12amASX Ltd shares down 2.2% as announcement outage rolls on

ASX shares have fallen more than 2 per cent.

I just checked in to see if the outage in publishing company announcements has been resolved… in short, no.

Here’s a ‘test’ announcement at 11:46am AEDT:

ASX test page4h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 12:48amASIC engaging with ASX over announcement outage

The corporate regulator ASIC has told ABC News it’s “aware of issues with the ASX market announcement platform and is engaging with ASX”.

Here’s the error message on the stock exchange website:

ASX website (ASX)

4h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 12:40am

Metcash earnings in-line with expectations, despite hardware and liquor misses

The first take of Metcash’s interim profit announcement was that it was largely in line with expectations, despite significant misses in hardware and liquor earnings.

J.P. Morgan retail analyst Bryan Raymond says the key positive is that food sales and earnings remain resilient, while corporate costs remain contained.

However, on balance, Mr Raymond noted that group underlying NPAT of $127million was about 7% below his estimate.

“Hardware profitability was well below expectations, at $90 million, declining by -4.1% YoY despite solid revenue growth,” he said

Mr Raymond also noted margins in the liquor business were well below expectations.

“Metcash’s Liquor business also saw earnings decline -11.4%, driven by a 24bps margin contraction to 1.7%, on lower stock profit contribution and higher labour costs,” Mr Raymond wrote in a note to clients

4h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 12:21am

ASX grapples with announcements glitch

The ASX is trying to get to the bottom of the glitch that halted the publication of company statements at 9am AEDT. Have they tried turning the platform off and on? Always works for the blog.

Anyway, it is causing a bit of disruption with several companies put in a trading halt pending price-sensitive releases.

One such company is Metcash, which got its interim profit announcement out just before 9am, and had an investor presentation ready to go when the ASX broke down (again).

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4h agoMon 1 Dec 2025 at 12:13am

TWE impairment reflects increased pessimism in US market: RBC

Treasury Wine Estate’s writing off of the entire goodwill value of its United States business hasn’t gone down well with investors.

While impairment charge of what is expected to be $687 million is of a non-cash nature, it’s not a good look and share price has slipped 2% this morning

Goodwill represents an intangible asset value above the value of basic tangible assets such as buildings, inventory and cash reserves.

TWE has been active in buying US brands to bolster its global stable of brands.

To an extent, TWE’s “America’s goodwill” represented the amount it paid for those labels above what they are deemed to be valued on the balance sheet.

RBC analyst Michael Toner says today’s announcement is another negative for the company.

TWE shares are down around 50% year-to-date.

“While non-cash in nature, and we believe headwinds to US wine market fundamentals are well understood, the announcement is negative in that it reflects increased pessimism by TWE regarding long-term market fundamentals, and reinforces the view that TWE materially overpaid for previously acquired Americas brands” Mr Toner wrote in a note to clients.

5h agoSun 30 Nov 2025 at 11:49pmASX inches higher, AUB and Treasury Wine Estates tumble

The ASX 200 has opened marginally higher, gaining just 0.1% to 8,621 points at 10:30am AEDT.

The basic materials and real estate sectors have led the gains, while healthcare and energy stocks have been a drag.

ASX 200 by sector (LSEG, ASX)

Despite some softer commodity prices, most notably iron ore, the big miners have largely been in demand this morning.

ASX 200 major miners (LSEG, ASX)

While the finance sector is broadly lower, most of the big banks have made gains, although ANZ is down 0.6%.

ASX major banks (LSEG, ASX)

The top mover on the ASX 200 this morning is copper and gold producer Greatland Resources (+9.4%) on the back of positive commentary in a production report.

ASX 200 top movers (LSEG, ASX)

The bottom mover on the ASX 200 is insurance broking business AUB (-17.4%) after a private equity consortium pulled out of a takeover bid.

Treasury Wine Estates (-4.0%) is also being sold off after announcing an almost $700 million (non-cash) impairment charge against its struggling US business.

ASX 200 bottom movers (LSEG, ASX)5h agoSun 30 Nov 2025 at 11:32pmASX hit by issue affecting company announcements

The stream of company announcements is a little slower this morning, as the stock exchange operator is experiencing issues.

According to the ASX website, it is “investigating an issue impacting the publication of company announcements”.

So expect continuous disclosure to be slightly interrupted I suppose?

“Individual securities will be halted where price sensitive announcements are received,” ASX said in an emailed response to Reuters.

The issue doesn’t appear to be affecting trade, with the market opening as normal.

ASX shares are up 0.3%.