The Australian sharemarket opened lower on Wednesday amid a flurry of corporate results, as a selloff in chipmakers and growing anxiety about an energy crunch due to the stalemate in the Iran war sent stocks lower on Wall Street overnight.

The S&P/ASX 200 was down 35.80 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 9034.20 as of 10.12am AEST, having closed flat on Tuesday. The Australian dollar is weaker at US70.84¢.

It’s another busy day on the reporting season calendar, with Santos, Yancoal, Mirvac and Healious among companies disclosing their results.

Wall Street pulled further from its all-time high as AI stocks got back to sinking. The S&P 500 fell 0.7 per cent for a third straight modest loss since setting its all-time high on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.2 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.3 per cent.

Leading the way lower were stocks that have been big winners in the boom around artificial-intelligence technology. They’ve been veering up and down in recent months on worries that their prices shot too high in the AI frenzy and that the strong demand for memory, processors and other building blocks of data centres may fizzle out if AI proves less profitable than promised.

Micron Technology dropped 7 per cent, and the seller of computer memory was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500. So were chip companies Nvidia, which fell 2.3 per cent, and Broadcom, which sank 3.2 per cent.

Even with their recent swings, such stocks remain big winners, and Micron has more than tripled this year.

But stocks that critics call too expensive get more scrutiny when interest rates are high, and yields remained that way in bond markets worldwide on Tuesday.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury edged down to 4.70 per cent from 4.72 per cent late Monday but remains well above its 3.97 per cent level from just before the war with Iran began. The 30-year Treasury yield also ticked lower but is still near its highest level since 2007.

Yields have jumped since the war began because high oil prices are pushing upward on inflation. All the while, continuing worries about huge debt loads for governments and their increases in borrowing keep yields high.

When yields are high, investors are less willing to pay high prices for stocks and other kinds of investments, particularly those seen as the most expensive.

Much of the pressure on yields has come from oil prices. Oil rose for a fourth day, with no sign of progress toward a resolution of the US-Iran war after almost six months of conflict as President Donald Trump insisted there were no talks ongoing with Tehran. Brent crude added 0.2 per cent to $US91.02 per barrel. It’s been swinging sharply on uncertainty about when and whether the United States and Iran can reach a deal to allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf freely again. Brent was going for $US72.87 per barrel just before the start of the war.

High yields have already sent the average long-term US mortgage rate near its highest level in a year, which has hurt the housing industry. A report on Tuesday said homebuilders broke ground on fewer new houses last month than economists expected.

Such data helped to restrain Home Depot’s stock, which slipped 0.1 per cent even though the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said Home Depot saw its customers continue to pursue smaller projects.

High yields could also slow the borrowing Big Tech companies are doing to pay for data centres, putting at risk one of the big sources of growth for the US economy.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Klarna fell 22.8 per cent even though the payments company reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The buy-now, pay-later company cut some of its financial forecasts for 2026, largely because of expectations for Germany, its largest market by volume.

Meta Platforms fell 4.4 per cent as opening statements began in a pivotal trial in a California federal court, where states are seeking billions of dollars in damages for social media harms to children.

In other international markets, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.5 per cent, which counts as relatively modest move for it. It had swung by at least 2.4 per cent in each of its three prior days. Seoul’s market has been home to some of the world’s sharpest AI-induced swings because it’s dominated by two tech giants, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

with AP, Bloomberg

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