ASX dips amid potential US government shutdown

The Australian sharemarket has dipped as investors take stock of a potential US federal government shutdown in the coming hours.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 18.9 points, 0.2 per cent, in the opening five minutes of trading on Wednesday, with losses in energy, materials and IT leading the local bourse lower despite six out of 11 sectors being in the green.
US equity-index futures edged lower in early Asian trading, with the government in Washington only hours away from a potential shutdown.
Contracts for the S&P 500 dipped 0.2 per cent as the government hurtled toward a shutdown as a bill to avoid the closure failed.
Democrats had the votes to block a Republican stopgap funding package that didn't address their demands. President Donald Trump threatened to oust federal workers and cut programs.
Investor focus is squarely on the looming government shutdown, which threatens to delay key economic reports used to gauge the Federal Reserve's path on interest-rate cuts. While most standoffs end in last-minute deals, past episodes have caused enough disruption in the federal bureaucracy to force Wall Street to weigh the potential fallout for US markets.
"US Congressional leaders have made no progress to avoid a government shutdown, which now appears likely, unless a resolution can be reached by 2pm AEST ," said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore.
"The key unknowns are how long a shutdown would last and whether Friday night's non-farm payrolls report will be delivered."
On the ASX, index heavyweight BHP fell 1.8 per cent amid conflicting reports that China has temporarily banned purchases of the mining giant's iron ore shipped from the Pilbara, as part of hardball negotiations over pricing for the next 12 months. Shares in BHP also fell in US and UK overnight. But fellow iron ore giant Rio Tinto was flat.
Lithium stocks were sold off in early trading following reports that Chinese authorities have approved reserve reports from two major lithium producers operating in the mining hub of Yichun.
PLS fell 6.4 per cent, Mineral Resources 5.1 per cent, Liontown Resources 4.6 per cent and IGO 2.9 per cent.
The IT sector fell 0.8 per cent. NextDC came off 1.4 per cent while Xero, Life360, and TechnologyOne all fell nearly 1 per cent.
Stocks on the move
DroneShield rocketed another 12 per cent on Wednesday and has now jumped 30 per cent for the week. "Investors [have] piled into the counter-drone technology specialist amid recent military contract wins and discussion of the EU's 'Drone Wall' initiative to counter Russian drone threats along its eastern borders," said IG's Sycamore.

Sumber : AFR