AdvertisementThe Australian sharemarket edged lower in early trade on Wednesday amid a flurry of corporate results, as a selloff in chipmakers and growing anxiety about an energy crunch due to the stalemate in the Iran war sent stocks lower on Wall Street overnight.The S&P/ASX 200 was down 31.89 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 9038.10 as of 11.20am AEST, with seven of its 11 industry sectors in the red. The market closed flat on Tuesday. The Australian dollar was weaker at US70.71¢.AI stocks have been volatile in the northern hemisphere summer.BloombergIt’s another busy day on the reporting season calendar, with Santos, Stockland, Mirvac and Healius among companies disclosing their results.Miners led declines in early trade, with BHP - the largest stock on the ASX - down 1.5 per cent after the stock jumped on its strong result and dividend bonanza announced on Tuesday. Gold miners were also lower following a 1.8 per cent fall in gold prices overnight as traders evaluated the outlook for US inflation and interest rates amid a global government bond rout. Northern Star dropped 2.5 per cent, Evolution Mining slumped 3.1 per cent and Newmont fell 1.9 per cent.AdvertisementFinancial stocks were also lower, with all big four banks retreating. CBA shed 2.3 per cent, National Australia Bank dropped 0.5 per cent, Westpac slipped 1.3 per cent and ANZ Bank shed 0.7 per cent.Stocks linked to the boom in artificial technology also struggled, following the AI sell-off in the US overnight. Data centre operator NextDC fell 3.1 per cent, AI and cloud network provider Megaport lost 2.4 per cent and AI data centre landlord Goodman Group slid 3.8 per cent.On the corporate earnings front, oil giant Santos jumped 3 per cent after forecasting its production volumes in the December half will be 20 per cent to 30 per cent higher than in the first six months of the year. Labelling 2026 as a “year of transition” as it builds up major projects such as the Pikka oil field in Alaska, net profit in the first half fell 19 per cent to $US355 million, it said.Santos’ stock was also helped by yet another tick up in the oil price, as was Woodside’s, which rose 1.2 per cent. Oil was up for a fourth day, trading at $US91.71 with no sign of progress toward a resolution of the US-Iran war after almost six months as President Donald Trump insisted there were no talks ongoing with Tehran. Brent was going for $US72.87 per barrel before the war.Pathology and diagnostic imaging services provider Healius slumped 3.4 per cent after saying its full-year net loss widened to $415.6 million, from $151.2 million, following hefty goodwill writedowns on its pathology division. The company now expects to reach its 2027 target of mid- to high single-digit earnings margins in the pathology arm by about December 2028, due to reduced GP attendances and rising staff costs, and decided not to pay a final dividend.AdvertisementMeanwhile, the nation’s biggest healthcare stock CSL jumped another 3.4 per cent in early trade, rallying for a second day after the company said it would return to underlying net profit growth in fiscal 2027, as it pushes ahead with a sweeping restructuring.Shares of two of the biggest property developers surged after their earnings showed resilience in the face of the nation’s housing market downturn. Stockland soared 13.7 per cent after reporting a 20.2 per cent jump in full-year profit to $994 million, helped by $202 million in gains from property revaluations. Funds from operations were up 10.4 per cent to $892 million, driven by its property development arm which saw “materially higher settlement volumes and fee income,” it said. Property rival Mirvac gained 7.1 per cent after posting a 7 per cent higher operating profit of $508 million, helped by a 52 per cent earnings jump in its development arm.Temple and Webster plummeted 18 per cent as the online furniture seller said that despite a 10.6 per cent revenue uptick, its profitability has taken a hit from heavy discounting amid sluggish consumer spending as well as warehouse relocation costs, tax adjustments that led to a higher tax rate, and costs for its New Zealand expansion.In New York trading overnight, Wall Street pulled further from its all-time high as AI stocks got back to sinking. The S&P 500 fell 0.7 per cent for a third straight modest loss since setting its all-time high on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.2 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.3 per cent.AdvertisementLeading the way lower were stocks that have been big winners in the boom around artificial-intelligence technology. They’ve been veering up and down in recent months on worries that their prices shot too high in the AI frenzy and that the strong demand for memory, processors and other building blocks of data centres may fizzle out if AI proves less profitable than promised.Micron Technology dropped 7 per cent, and the seller of computer memory was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500. So were chip companies Nvidia, which fell 2.3 per cent, and Broadcom, which sank 3.2 per cent.Even with their recent swings, such stocks remain big winners, and Micron has more than tripled this year.But stocks that critics call too expensive get more scrutiny when interest rates are high, and yields remained that way in bond markets worldwide on Tuesday.The yield on the 10-year US Treasury edged down to 4.70 per cent from 4.72 per cent late Monday but remains well above its 3.97 per cent level from just before the war with Iran began. The 30-year Treasury yield also ticked lower but is still near its highest level since 2007.AdvertisementYields have jumped since the war began because high oil prices are pushing upward on inflation. All the while, continuing worries about huge debt loads for governments and their increases in borrowing keep yields high.When yields are high, investors are less willing to pay high prices for stocks and other kinds of investments, particularly those seen as the most expensive.High yields could also slow the borrowing Big Tech companies are doing to pay for data centres, putting at risk one of the big sources of growth for the US economy.Elsewhere on Wall Street, Klarna fell 22.8 per cent even though the payments company reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The buy-now, pay-later company cut some of its financial forecasts for 2026, largely because of expectations for Germany, its largest market by volume.AdvertisementMeta Platforms fell 4.4 per cent as opening statements began in a pivotal trial in a California federal court, where states are seeking billions of dollars in damages for social media harms to children.with AP, BloombergThe Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.SaveYou have reached your maximum number of saved items.Remove items from your saved list to add more.ShareMore:World marketsWall StreetSharesAdvertisementAdvertisement