Rate-sensitive sectors including consumer stocks dragged the local sharemarket lower,despite a US equities rebound overnight following its steep sell-off.
Despite a fall in profits and margins,JB Hi-Fi shares rose sharply on Monday after the company’s results beat market expectations.
Investors are looking through the retail gloom and anticipating how cyclical companies will fare when inflation is a memory and interest rates start to fall.
The class action against the $5.4 billion electronics company is the third lawsuit against a major Australian retailer in the space of a week.
The electronics retailer surprised with better than expected results,but the company’s boss says it’s clear conditions are tightening among consumers.
The Australian and New Zealand privacy commissioners have announced a joint investigation into the hack of Latitude Financial,which exposed the details of millions of consumer finance customers.
The electronics retailer’s sales remain well above what they were before the pandemic,but growth is flattening as interest rates bite.
Criminals who stole the data of 14 million consumers from Latitude Financial made a ransom demand to the consumer lender,which it is refusing to pay.
The data breach affects the driver’s licence numbers of 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand customers of retailers including Harvey Norman,JB Hi-Fi,The Good Guys and Apple.
Some products will still be flying off the shelf according to retailers,even as consumers tighten their belts.
Australia’s largest electronics and whitegoods retailer expects sales to soften and profitability to fall this year despite posting record half-year results.