33m agoThu 19 Mar 2026 at 1:32amMarket snapshotASX 200: -1.6% to 8,506 points 
Australian dollar: +0.2% to 70.38 US centsWall Street: Dow Jones (-1.6%), S&P 500 (-1.4%), Nasdaq (-1.5%)Europe: Stoxx 600 (-0.8%), DAX (-1%), FTSE (-1%)Asia: Nikkei (-2.8%), KOSPI (-2.6%), Hang Seng (-1.8%)Spot gold: +0.4% to $US4,837/ounce
Spot silver: +0.6% to $US75.85/ounceOil (Brent crude): +3.3% to $US110.92/barrelIron ore: -0.1% at $US106.25/tonneBitcoin: -0.3% at $US71,048

Price current around 12:31pm AEDT

Live updates on the major ASX indices:

6m agoThu 19 Mar 2026 at 1:59amGold rises off one-month low

Gold prices inched higher on Thursday after briefly touching a more than one-month low, but gains were capped by a firm US dollar and the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance, which has limited hopes for near-term rate cuts.

Spot gold added 0.4% to $US4,838 per ounce as of 12:15pm AEDT, rebounding after hitting its lowest since February 6 earlier in the day. Prices fell 3.7% on Wednesday.

US gold futures for April delivery shed 1.1% to $US4,839 per ounce.

Reporting with Reuters

19m agoThu 19 Mar 2026 at 1:46amAlbanese reveals new national fuel supply taskforce to shore up fuel supply

The federal government has established a national fuel supply taskforce to steer Australia’s response to the oil crisis sparked by the war in the Middle East.

The former head of Australia’s energy regulator, Anthea Harris, has been named to lead the taskforce.

States and territory leaders will also appoint a representative each to work with Ms Harris, who will come under the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Our political reporter Maani Truu is reporting from Canberra.

35m agoThu 19 Mar 2026 at 1:30am

ICYMI: Millions of home borrowers face more pain as costs rise at the pump

According to research from Roy Morgan, the latest interest rate rise from the Reserve Bank could leave more than 1.4 million home borrowers at risk of mortgage stress once the rate increases are passed through.

Catch up on the story from business correspondent David Taylor:

Loading…49m agoThu 19 Mar 2026 at 1:16am’Rise in unemployment won’t prevent further rate hikes’: analyst

With inflation set to approach 5%, the renewed rise in unemployment in February won’t prevent the RBA from hiking rates further, according to Marcel Thieliant, head of Asia-Pacific for Capital Economics.

He said he would stick to his forecast that the bank would hike rates to 4.35% at its next meeting in early May.

“The 48,900 rise in employment in February meant that employment has risen by an average 46,300 over the past three months, the largest increase since late-2023,” Mr Thieliant said.

“However, that’s still barely higher than the 4.2% recorded last year and in line with the RBA’s forecast that it will reach 4.3% by June.

“Most importantly, the RBA thinks that the labour market is still too tight to meet its inflation target.

“Either way, the bank’s key concern is that inflation is set to approach 5% next quarter, which means it has been above the midpoint of the Bank’s 2-3% target band for most of the last five years.

“With crude oil prices hitting fresh highs, the Bank is already concerned that inflation expectations are becoming unanchored.”

1h agoThu 19 Mar 2026 at 12:59am

Brent crude hits $US112 while vessel attacked

The price of global oil benchmark Brent crude is up another 4% in Asian trade to $US112 per barrel.

A short time ago, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) received a report that a vessel had been hit by an unknown projectile just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

This latest attack brings the total to 25 incidents reported by the UKMTO since the war began.

1h agoThu 19 Mar 2026 at 12:38amUnemployment rate rises to 4.3pc in February

The Australian unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in February, up from 4.1%, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said the number of unemployed people grew by 35,000, contributing to the 0.2 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate of February.

“This month we saw fewer people who were unemployed and waiting to start a job in January move into employment in February, compared to recent Februarys,” Mr Crick said.

“We also saw more people remaining unemployed this month compared to recent Februarys.”

Meanwhile, employed people grew by 49,000, with part-time employment rising by 79,000 and full-time employment falling by 30,000.

“This month we saw more people move into part-time employment, particularly those aged 65 and over,” Mr Crick added.

“Additionally, this month we saw that fewer people are leaving jobs to retire compared to a year ago.”

The underemployment rate (which refers to employed people who want to work more hours) remained at 5.9%.

The participation rate, which measures the share of people either working or actively looking for work, increased to 66.9%.

1h agoThu 19 Mar 2026 at 12:30amEnergy up 3.2pc, leading ASX

Hi all, Yiying here with you.

As the trading day started an hour and a half or so ago, we can see the ASX 200 lost 1.6% to 8,504 points, despite a surge in the Energy sector.

Energy and Utilities were the only two sectors to gain, up 3.2% and 0.3%, while Materials was the worst-performing, down 3.8%, followed by Real Estate, down 2.5%.

The top movers in the index were:

Viva Energy, +13.7%Ampol, +6%Woodside Energy, +4.7%Yancoal Australia, +4.5%Karoon Energy, +4%

The bottom movers are:

Ora Banda Mining, -10.7%Iperionx Ltd, -10.4%Bellevue Gold, -9.5%Genesis Minerals, -9.5%Regis Resources, -9.5%

1h agoThu 19 Mar 2026 at 12:21am

Another bank hikes rates for homeowners

Bank of Sydney is the latest to announce it’ll pass on the Reserve Bank’s latest cash rate rise in full.

All of the Big Four banks announced on rates day Tuesday that they’ll pass on the full rate increase of 0.25%. All of them will start doing this on March 27, except for Westpac which is going a little bit later on March 31.

Bank of Sydney says it’ll “delay” its increase until April 14 to give its customers “breathing room”. That’s after a rate hike was already implemented in February, and economists are predicting another one for May.

You can read more about what the banks are doing and calculate your new repayments here.

2h agoThu 19 Mar 2026 at 12:00amMarket sell-off matches the futures, for now — analysis

Unlike the big sell-off on Monday a week-and-a-half ago — when the futures were pointing to a 1.7% fall and the ASX 200 opened around 2.7% lower and fell further — overnight ASX futures action has accurately foreshadowed today’s open.

The ASX 200 futures were pointing to a 1.6% fall and that’s exactly what we got.

This morning, the Brent crude oil price has pulled back slightly from levels seen earlier this morning — it was most recently just above $US107 a barrel.

However, given the ongoing unpredictable situation in the Middle East, the market could shift either way later today — a bigger fall or a rally — based on developments.

The big fear at the moment is major damage to a key LNG facility in Qatar and other oil and gas infrastructure, which could take many weeks or months to fix.

Given how dependent many large Asian economies are on those Middle East energy supplies, it’ll be interesting to watch how things track once Japan, Korea and China’s share markets open over the next couple of hours.

2h agoWed 18 Mar 2026 at 11:46pmACCC investigating diesel supply conduct in regional and rural Australia

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched an enforcement investigation into allegations of anti-competitive conduct by each of the major fuel suppliers servicing regional and rural Australia.

These include:

Ampol LtdBP Australia Pty LtdMobil Oil Australia Pty LtdViva Energy Australia Pty Ltd.

Reports were made to the ACCC about concerning diesel availability to independent wholesalers and distributors servicing these parts of the country.

“The ACCC is closely scrutinising all fuel markets during this period, and we have received reports of alleged anti-competitive behaviour. We are therefore investigating these matters urgently,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.

“It is not our usual practice to publicly announce investigations, but given the significance of the issue, the ACCC is confirming this enforcement investigation. We recognise the widespread concerns held by consumers, businesses and farmers about fuel pricing and supply issues arising during the Middle Eastern conflict.”

She said the investigation was in the early stages, with the ACCC yet to form a view about these allegations.

“It is important that fuel market participants and the community know that we are closely watching market conduct in relation to all fuels and we will not hesitate to act swiftly to enforce Australia’s competition and consumer laws,” Ms Cass-Gottlieb said.

It comes as the ACCC last week announced an emergency meeting with energy industry stakeholders to justify price hikes in major cities across the country.

Viva Energy is up +12.3% in morning trade on the Aussie share market, while Ampol is up +3.9%.

2h agoWed 18 Mar 2026 at 11:40pmInterest rates abroad

While Australia is hiking interest rates, some other countries are holding back.

The Bank of Canada has kept its key policy rate at 2.25% today, giving a nod to growth outlook worsening.

Bradley Saunders from Capital Economics doesn’t think the bank will hike rates now until next year.

Meanwhile, Brazil has just seen a 25-basis-point cut to interest rates, down to 14.75%, after five straight meetings holding it at 15%.

2h agoWed 18 Mar 2026 at 11:25pmWhy did the RBA raise interest rates? Will higher petrol prices have same effect?

There’s been a sea of information about interest rates and petrol prices over recent weeks. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, that is okay! Here is an explainer from my colleague and our digital lead Stephanie Chalmers, answering your burning questions:

2h agoWed 18 Mar 2026 at 11:10pmASX in the red

A market sell-off has seen the Aussie share market open down -1.6% to 8,505 points.

Check out the drop from where the ASX finished yesterday afternoon:

ASX 200 movement (Refinitiv)

Energy is the only sector making gains, with Basic Materials down the very bottom.

ASX 200 sector summary (Refinitiv)

174 stocks are in the red, six are unchanged, and 20 are gaining.

Here are the top movers, led by major energy companies:

ASX 200 top movers (Refinitiv)

And here are the bottom movers:

ASX 200 bottom movers (Refinitiv)

The Aussie dollar is trading about 70 US cents.

3h agoWed 18 Mar 2026 at 11:00pmASX slumps

The Australian share market has opened down -1.6% to 8,505 points.

More to come.

3h agoWed 18 Mar 2026 at 10:55pmThe flow-on effects from energy market disruption

Senior Financial Market Analyst at capital.com Kyle Rodda says the inflationary risks associated with the war in the Middle East increased on Wall Street overnight, as the impacts to energy markets spread far and wide. 

“In addition to being choked off by a blockaded Strait of Hormuz and stifled by reduced production from Gulf refineries, energy markets face shocks from direct attacks on infrastructure.

“The Iranians hit one of the world’s largest gas plants in retaliation for an Israeli strike on a gas field. The price of Brent Crude surged above $US110 as a result of the strikes, and Natural Gas prices spiked again too.

“The direct attacks on energy infrastructure illustrate the war’s long-lasting consequences: productive capacity will be offline for an uncomfortably long time, meaning energy prices are likely to fall much slower than they rose,” he says.

3h agoWed 18 Mar 2026 at 10:40pmAn exciting announcement

The ABC is launching ABC Business Daily — a new weekday podcast making sense of the biggest stories in business, finance and economics.

The ABC is launching ABC Business Daily next week. (ABC)

The first ep will air on Monday, and will be presented by Senior Business Correspondent Carrington Clarke, joined by other ABC Business journalists to break down the major business and economic stories of the day.

Monday to Thursday ABC Business Daily will go beyond the headlines to explain what’s happening and why it matters, giving smart, clear analysis of the forces shaping the economy and how they impact Australians.

Then on Fridays, dive deeper with That’s Business with Alan Kohler — one of Australia’s most respected business journalists. Each week Kohler will speak with a leading figure from the world of business, politics or economics to help audiences understand where Australia is headed — kicking off with Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Loading3h agoWed 18 Mar 2026 at 10:25pmA note from CBA

The Commonwealth Bank economics team estimates the unemployment rate for February, which will be announced later this morning, will remain steady at 4.1%, estimating 20,000 new jobs.

The CBA economics team also think markets are underestimating the length and disruption to energy markets from the Iranian war, and warns the Aussie and US dollar will fall sharply if markets start to downgrade the global economic outlook.

3h agoWed 18 Mar 2026 at 10:10pmWhy don’t Australian banks offer 30-year fixed-rate home loans? Borrowers would benefit from them

A new report says Australians would benefit from having 20-30 year long-term fixed-rate home loans.

It says borrowers are currently used as “shock absorbers” for Australia’s financial system, since variable-rate home loans dominate the market.

My colleague Gareth Hutchens and I prepared this piece, which you can read below:

4h agoWed 18 Mar 2026 at 9:55pm

ICYMI: Wednesday finance with Daniel Ziffer

Both BHP and Woodside have new bosses, in a changing of the guard in corporate Australia.

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