To The Moon

The Australian sharemarket fell at Friday’s open, hit by renewed fears of AI overinvestment and disruption, while steep declines in gold and silver added to the selling pressure.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 60.60 points, or 0.7% to 8982.90 at 10.15am AEDT, with eight of the 11 sectors off. The benchmark however remains up 3.1% for the week, which would be its strongest since April.

Gold fell as much as 4.1%, while silver plunged 11% and copper by 2.9% before paring some losses as concerns about AI spurred a selloff across financial markets. Capital.com senior market analyst Kyle Rodda said that the deleveraging and repositioning that began with the gold and silver melt down probably hasn’t played-out entirely, causing cross asset weakness and volatility.

“The narrative here is about AI overinvestment, valuations and disruption. That is: AI companies are spending big and leveraging up to stay ahead in the AI arms race, reducing potential returns on capital, as new disruptive models hit the market and cast doubt over to whom the spoils of the AI boom will go,” he said.

“The extreme moves… hint at ongoing dislocations and deleveraging driven by speculators liquidating parts of their portfolio in order to cover losses in other parts.”

Technology was the weakest sector as falls in the past month surpassed 23%. TechnologyOne dived 5.5%, Xero 4.1% and WiseTech Global 13.3% to a four-year low.

For materials, Northern Star dropped 2.4%, Newmont 3.2%, Gensis Minerals 5.7% and South32 5%.

Cochlear dive 12.3% following a 21% drop in net profit to $162 million that missed expectations, and as it flagged its full-year profit would be at the lower end of its $435 million to $460 million guidance.

Westpac firmed 1.5% as it reported a net profit of $1.9 billion in the three months to December, a 5% jump on the last two quarters of 2025.

Webjet tumbled 23.2% as it ended takeover talks with Helloworld and BGH Capital after failing to receive binding proposal. It also trimmed its underlying FY26 EBITDA guidance to a range of $28 million to $29 million, excluding Webjet Business Travel.

Wesfarmers added 1% following plans to partner with Microsoft in a multi-year to further embed artificial intelligence across brands, such as Bunnings, Kmart Group, Blackwoods, and Priceline.

GQG Partners jumped 5.3% as it reported higher revenue in its 2025 financial year ending December 31 after management fees rose on growth in average funds under management to $US164.3 billion ($231 million) from $US148.2 billion, an increase of 10.8%.

Furniture retailer Nick Scali dropped 9.6% after it posted a 36.4% jump in net profit to $41 million in the first half of the financial year, topping its recently upgraded guidance.