Mr Abbott was spruiking the government’s grocery code of conduct, outside a western Sydney store of supermarket giant Woolworths on Tuesday when he was quizzed by reporters on developments in Europe and China. No. 1 energy retailer Origin lost 1.5 percent.
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Stock markets and oil prices fell Monday after Greece’s voters overwhelmingly rejected reform proposals from worldwide creditors, a verdict that’s reinforced fears the country may be heading out of the euro currency.
Elsewhere, the French trade deficit widened in May as exports fell 0.6 per cent and imports jumped 1.2 per cent.
“There’s a number of things the Chinse authorities have done that will slow the pace of the fall but the market has risen by 150 per cent in 12 months so you would expect to see a fairly substantial pull-back and that’s what we’ve seen”. It urgently needs money to pay pensions and wages, and to reopen its banks – shut for a week already after talks with its creditors collapsed.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gave up 15 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,061. It was its worst drop of the year, and it could happen again.
With more than 95 per cent of the ballots counted, Greeks have voted 61 per cent against austerity measures required to win another bailout package, according to figures posted on the Interior Ministry’s website. The Nasdaq composite fell 38 points, also 0.8 percent, to 4,971.
“This is not driven by the US where the economy and conditions are relatively stable, it’s really being driven by a host of factors globally – oil, China, Greece and European equities”, said Robert Sinche, a strategist at Amherst Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut.
Among the major banks, Commonwealth Bank was down $1.32 at $85.34, Westpac had retreated 52 cents to $32.24, National Australia Bank had weakened 44 cents to $33.27, and ANZ had backtracked 40 cents to $32.06.
The USA, currency has benefited from the Greek debt crisis in part because of its limited economic exposure to the Mediterranean nation.
On Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index added 106.4 points, or 1.94 per cent, to 5,581.4 points.
“Markets have ignored consequences for the rest of the euro monetary union up until now, but the Greek “no” vote probably changes this, which could now result in investors worrying about what happens to other weak peripheral countries”, said William Longbrake of the University of Maryland’s Robert H.
The stock opened and closed at 23 cents. Brent crude dropped 1.5 per cent to US$59.41 a barrel, trading below US$60 for the first time since mid-April.
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The USA currency rallied along with Treasuries as Greece struggles to put forward an official proposal for aid.
