Afternoon Report | Tech stocks sold off
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Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report for Tuesday, the 23rd of June, 2026. I'm Michael Thompson and every afternoon we've got the five stories that happened today that you need to know about. Let's jump straight into story number one. The S&P ASX 200 fell 0.3% today to 8,787 points. It was the tech stocks that led the losses after a global sell-off in the sector. Amid renewed concerns that AI-related valuations have run ahead of fundamentals, locally, we saw technology one fall 7%, zero drop more than 5%, and WiseTech Global slid to a five-year low. That is also in part due to the company denying reports that executive chairman Richard White was aware of any Australian federal police investigation.
We spoke about that one yesterday afternoon and again on this morning's episode. Investors are now broadly focused on tomorrow's monthly inflation figures. Economists are expecting both headline and underlying inflation to tick higher. Mining stocks today were also weaker. Iron ore fell below 98 US dollars a ton. Gold prices eased. BHP lost 0.7%. Newmont, the gold miner, dropped more than 2%. The major banks, though, provided a bit of support. ANZ, NAB, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, all four finished higher today. Story number two, Viva Energy's Geelong refinery will return to more than 90% of normal production this week after a huge fire back in April. We talked about it at the time. But a processing unit that was crippled by the blaze is going to remain out of service until at least 2027.
Viva told investors today that work to restart the residue catalytic cracking unit known as the RCCU. of course, had been completed and that associated processing units were returning to service. Production is expected to return to more than 90% of normal capacity this week, restoring the refinery's ability to convert lower value intermediate products into higher value transport fuels. Viva's share price closed 2.4% lower today. Story number three, one out of Canberra. Senior Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie will receive additional security protections after becoming the target of an online campaign linked to his potential involvement in the war crimes case against decorated former soldier Ben Robert Smith.
Hastie told Coalition colleagues that he had been approved for security upgrades at both his home and his electorate office following concerns raised by authorities. The former SAS captain believes that the campaign has been driven by supporters of Robert Smith and the elements associated with One Nation, although the party denies any involvement. Robert Smith is facing five war crimes charges relating to the alleged killing of unarmed Afghan civilians, and Hastie may again be called as a witness after previously giving evidence against Robert Smith in his unsuccessful defamation case against Nine Entertainment. The other big story out of Canberra today was the decision by the Greens to support the government's changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing.
We'll have a lot more on that one tomorrow morning. Story number four, a bit happening in corporate land today. Reliance Worldwide fell 3% after it said it would close some of its brass casting, forging and machining operations as part of a broader rationalization of its global manufacturing footprint. About 85 employees are expected to be affected by that one. Iluka Resources fell more than 10% after it signed its first binding Rare Earths offtake agreement with a global automotive company and Linus Rare Earths dropped after it was asked by Malaysian regulators to submit an updated environmental impact assessment for a proposed expansion of its operations in the country. And finally, story number five, finish on some good news.
Lionel Messi has become the leading goal scorer. This is quite incredible. In World Cup history, scoring twice in Argentina's 2-0 victory over Austria, it takes his tally at football's biggest tournament now to 18 goals, adding really another milestone to a career that's already regarded as one of the greatest in sport.
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