Daily Market Update: 24 February 2026

ASX slips 0.6% as Trump’s new tariffs renew trade uncertainty; gold miners shine, tech selloff deepens

The Australian sharemarket slipped from near-record highs on Monday as renewed tariff uncertainty out of Washington weighed on sentiment. The S&P/ASX 200 fell 55.4 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 9,026 with eight of the 11 industry sectors finishing lower. The selloff came after US President Donald Trump announced a temporary 15 per cent tariff on all imports over the weekend, replacing the emergency levies struck down by the Supreme Court on Friday. The materials sector bucked the trend, rising 1.5 per cent as gold surged 1.1 per cent to near a three-week high of US$5,161.64 an ounce – with Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) up 8.2 per cent, Greatland Resources (ASX:GRR) adding 6.4 per cent and Newmont (ASX:NEM) gaining 4.9 per cent. BHP (ASX:BHP) touched a fresh high of $54.75 before closing up 1.3 per cent. Technology was the weakest sector for another session, off 4.6 per cent as AI disruption fears continued to rattle investors – WiseTech (ASX:WTC) lost 5.2 per cent, NextDC (ASX:NXT) 4.1 per cent and TechnologyOne (ASX:TNE) 5.2 per cent. The big four banks all finished lower, led by ANZ (ASX:ANZ) down 2.3 per cent.

Reece rallies 14% on earnings beat as Lendlease hits 1987 low after $318m loss

Reporting season delivered some sharp moves on Monday. Reece (ASX:REH) rallied 13.9 per cent to $15.88 after first-half EBIT of $262 million beat consensus by around 5 per cent, driven by better-than-expected cost management in its Australian operations. Revenue rose 6 per cent to $4.65 billion on the back of network expansion, though net profit still fell 20 per cent to $144 million amid subdued housing markets on both sides of the Pacific – US EBIT slumped 26 per cent as 19 new branch openings weighed on margins. Full-year EBIT guidance of $520–540 million sits roughly 5 per cent above market expectations, giving investors confidence. At the other end, Lendlease (ASX:LLC) tumbled 7.2 per cent to $4.25 – its lowest level since 1987 – after swinging to a statutory loss of $318 million, compared with a $48 million profit a year earlier. The result was dragged down by $118 million in non-cash revaluations on offshore investment property in the US, UK and Singapore, and a $287 million loss from its Capital Release unit, though Construction swung to a $69 million profit. Elsewhere, Nuix (ASX:NXL) rocketed 15.1 per cent after swinging to a net profit of $11.1 million, Perenti (ASX:PRN) fell 13.8 per cent on softer guidance, and Austal (ASX:ASB) dropped 11 per cent despite reporting higher revenue and profit.

Wall Street slides as AI disruption fears deepen; IBM crashes 13%, gold tops US$5,200

Wall Street retreated on Monday as AI disruption fears intensified, with the S&P 500 falling 1 per cent, the Dow off 1.7 per cent and the Nasdaq down 1.1 per cent. The tech sector bore the brunt after Citrini Research outlined the potential for AI to upend a range of industries, triggering a broad selloff across software, delivery and payments stocks – an ETF tracking software firms lost 4.8 per cent in what is shaping up as its worst month since 2008. IBM (NYSE:IBM) tumbled 13 per cent in its worst session since 2000 after Anthropic said its Claude Code tool can help modernise COBOL, while DoorDash (NYSE:DASH) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) each sank more than 6.5 per cent. On the trade front, the White House confirmed a blanket 15 per cent tariff on all US imports to replace the emergency levies struck down by the Supreme Court last Friday. Gold topped US$5,200 an ounce as investors sought safety, Treasury yields fell five basis points to 4.03 per cent, and Bitcoin slipped below US$65,000. Attention now turns to Nvidia (NYSE:NVDA) earnings on Wednesday for the next read on whether mega-cap AI spending is translating into returns.