Market update: 2 September 2025
In Australia, the ASX 200 managed to notch a small gain of 0.1% this week, marking four weeks in the green. The RBA minutes were largely uneventful, showing a unanimous decision and hinting that further cuts are likely over the next year. The local earnings season has now wrapped up, with 95% of companies having reported results. Despite some sharp moves in the big names, overall it has been a strong season with 29% of companies beating expectations, 36% missing, and 35% reporting in line – which is above the historical average.
In the US, markets slipped slightly into the red, with the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq all down by less than 0.3% in a relatively quiet holiday-shortened week. Most of the spotlight was on Nvidia, the world’s largest company, which delivered results on Wednesday that generally beat consensus. That helped ease recent worries about whether the AI-driven tech rally was overextended. Meanwhile, concerns about the Fed’s independence also cropped up after President Trump announced plans to dismiss Fed Governor Lisa Cook, who has since filed a lawsuit to contest the move.
European equities ended the week on a weaker note, with the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index (FTSE, pronounced “footsie”) down 1.4%, the Euro Stoxx 600 off 2.0% and the Euro Stoxx 50 down 2.5%. ECB minutes revealed a split among policymakers over the inflation outlook, with some pointing to weaker growth prospects due to tariffs, while others raised concerns over energy costs and currency moves.
In China, shares kept climbing, not so much because the economy is firing on all cylinders, but because many households with plenty of savings are choosing to put their money into the sharemarket instead of leaving it in the bank where interest rates are low. This extra demand from everyday investors has been helping to push prices higher.
In Japan, markets edged lower as some investors took profits at the end of the month to rebalance their portfolios. The Hang Seng, however, slipped 1.0%. Japan saw modest gains, with the Nikkei up 0.2%, as month-end portfolio rebalancing prompted some profit-taking.
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