The Australian shares have extended yesterday’s loss in afternoon trade, ahead of the Reserve Bank's policy decision on interest rates. Investors opted for a wait-and-watch approach due to Memorial Day market closure in the United States and on caution ahead of the GDP data due Wednesday for directional cues. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 is currently down 31.60 points or 0.44 per cent to 7130, after setting a new 52-week high in previous session. The index is down 1.02 per cent below its 52-week high.
Australian aerial imagery technology and location data company Nearmap is top percentage loser on ASX, falling 4.46 per cent to $1.71. PointsBet Holdings , Blackmores, Lynas Corporation and Polynovo are among other worst performers, falling over 3 per cent each. The deal with Facebook is for the supply of news video clips and access to digital news articles on Facebook news products, for a term of up to 3 years.
The 5-year agreement with Google includes the supply of news content, excluding video for Google’s News Showcase and other news products. Following the announcement, shares of Nine are rising over 3 per cent to $3.06. Pilot also shared that CEO and Managing Director of Royal Energy Tony Strasser will become the Managing Director of the company.
But linking it to gross domestic product (GDP) numbers announced by any country is bit of an irrational comparison. To simply put, the GDP numbers have, over the years, become redundant – thanks to the irrational timing of putting this data out.
