Afternoon Report | ASX drops; latest radio ratings
episodePreviously titled “Afternoon Report | ASX tumbles 1.2pc” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report for Thursday, the 23rd of April, 2026. I'm Michael Thompson, and every afternoon we've got the five stories that happened today that you need to know about, coming to you today from the Microsoft AI Tour in Sydney. Story number one, the S&P ASX 200 dropped 0.6% today to 8,793 points. That is its lowest level in more than two weeks. Nine of the 11 sectors finished in the red today. Markets were a touch unsettled by fresh reports of attacks on commercial vessels and ship seizures in the Strait of Hormuz. We'll have a bit more on that one later. Oil prices pushed higher, with energy companies really the only standout performers on the local bourse.
Santos rose 3.6% after reporting higher production from its Barossa project. while Woodside Energy and Ampol also rose. Materials led the decline. Linus Rare Earths was down nearly 7% despite reporting record production earlier in the week. Consumer stocks also didn't have such a great day. Temple & Webster, for instance, fell more than 8% after announcing a leadership reshuffle. All four big banks were lower. And in tech, WiseTech Global fell just over 3% after announcing a board change. Onto story number two now, and Microsoft will train 3 million Australians in artificial intelligence skills over the next three years as part of a major push to prepare the workforce for rapid changes being driven by AI.
Why did the ASX drop 0.6% today?
Global Chief Executive Satya Nadella, who is in Australia at the moment and met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today, said the scale of technological change means upskilling will be critical to ensuring workers can benefit from new opportunities and The program will target a broad group, including workers, students, and teachers, with a focus on practical workforce-ready skills and responsible use of AI tools. The training push sits alongside a broader $25 billion investment in Australia's AI ecosystem announced today, including new data centers. Story number three, property group Mervac has flagged a slowdown in residential momentum and really tied it back to growing uncertainty linked to the Middle East conflict.
But despite that, it says that it does remain on track to meet full year earnings targets. The group reported mixed sales activity with nearly 1,900 residential sales in the March quarter, which is up 28% year on year. But of those 1,900 residential sales in the quarter, only 281 were recorded in March itself, with conditions then easing into April. Mervac says it is closely watching geopolitical risks particularly of course the impact of the middle east conflict and is focusing on protecting liquidity managing supply chains and being selective with capital deployment as this uncertainty persists story number four the latest radio ratings are out today showing a pretty mixed result following the collapse of the Kyle and Jackie O show.
ARN Media's Kiss FM breakfast slot, which was of course the former home of Kyle and Jackie O, lost ground in Sydney, falling from a 12.7% share to 11.7%. but it edged higher in Melbourne from 5.1% to 5.4%. Now, this survey period does capture a period both before and after the disintegration of the show. Elsewhere in the industry, the ABC recorded its lowest ever shares in both Sydney and Melbourne. In the latter city, 3AW remained dominant, as it does pretty much every survey, with its breakfast show hitting an 18.9% share. In Sydney, 2GB tied for top spot with Smooth FM at 13.3%, with the talk station's breakfast host Ben Fordham leading the slot. That network is about to move to new ownership, having been sold recently by Nine Entertainment.
Meanwhile, ARN's Gold FM struggled in Sydney after launching a national breakfast format, which is still performing strongly in Melbourne, where the show is based. And finally, story number five, the US Navy chief has been fired with leadership turmoil hitting the Pentagon during one of the most significant US naval operations in decades. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan was removed from the role with the Trump administration declaring new leadership was needed.
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