ASX Today Live News & Analysis

Australia's share market has had its best week in nine months, despite a bleak final session as jitters around artificial intelligence disruption hit risk sentiment.

The S&P/ASX200 fell 125.9 points on Friday, down 1.39 per cent, to 8,917.6, as the broader All Ordinaries lost 143 points, or 1.54 per cent, to 9,138.8.

After nearing an all-time peak on Thursday, the top-200 has sold off sharply as global equities slide due to fears around artificial intelligence disruption and investment.

The disruption came after US freight stocks tanked on news of an AI application - from former karaoke machine company Algorhythm Holdings - claiming it could scale freight volumes by 400 per cent without extra staff, sparking concerns about potential impacts to other sectors.

"You've got these developing products ... which are changing the game, and it's moving so fast the average person in markets just can't conceptualise the speed of this and what this means for businesses," Pepperstone head of research Chris Weston told AAP.

"When we can't understand the landscape in a year's time, let alone five years' time, that's going to cause volatility, because we can't price certainty."

Despite the late slump, it was the top-200's best week since May 2025, up 2.4 per cent with solid performances from the co-heavyweight financials and raw materials sectors.

With the exception of utilities and retail stocks, it was all red for the segments on Friday, with IT (-5.1 per cent) and health care (-4.0 per cent) hit hard.

The impact on the local sector came from WiseTech Global's more than 10 per cent drop, linked to the logistics shake up sparked by Algorhythm Holdings.

Cochlear was the big stand out in a brutal day for health care stocks, the hearing device manufacturer's share price plummeting almost 19 per cent to a three-year low on weaker-than-expected earnings.

Local miners were under pressure, with basic materials down two per cent, tracking with similar slips in BHP and Fortescue, while Rio bucked the trend with a modest advance.

Gold stocks were a sea of red, despite the precious metal reclaiming some overnight losses during the session to trade hands at $US4,973 ($A7,030) an ounce.

Financials faded 0.8 per cent with three of the big four banks trading lower after a mixed earnings result from Westpac.

ANZ crept to a second record high of $40.89 in as many days after its stellar Thursday result and a subsequent upgrade from Morgan Stanley.

Energy stocks tumbled two per cent as oil prices fell dipped for a second session as the International Energy Agency cut its demand forecast for 2026.

Utilities were the only real good news story, up 3.4 per cent on Friday and 9.4 per cent for the week, supported by strong earnings results from Origin and AGL and risk-off tailwinds.

Consumer discretionary stocks fell 2.4 per cent in a broad-based sell-off, with furniture trader Nick Scali underperforming as its value dropped by more than a fifth after missing expectations on local sales.

Shipbuilder Austal fell a similar amount after admitting an accounting mistake had overstated its 2026 earnings guidance by about 17 per cent, taking out the top-200's worst performance on Friday.

The Australian dollar is buying 70.68 US cents, down from 71.24 US cents on Thursday at 5pm, slipping as US Federal Reserve rhetoric turned hawkish this week, despite markets' narrowing bets on further interest rate hikes at home.

Rates markets now price a 80 per cent chance of a Reserve Bank interest rate hike in May.

ON THE ASX:

The S&P/ASX200 fell 125.9 points, or 1.39 per cent, to 8,917.6

The broader All Ordinaries lost 143 points, or 1.54 per cent, to 9,138.8

The NZX 50 Lost -333.30 points (-2.53%) to 13,198.18 while the Nikkei dropped -697.87 points (-1.23%) at the time of writing, to be closed at 56,941.97