ASX 200 ends the week 0.37% higher at 9,092.3 as a Materials record offsets a CPI-driven sell-off in rate-sensitive sectors

ASX 200 week close: 9,092.3 (+0.37%) S&P 500 Friday close: 7,711.76 (-0.25%) Sentiment: mixed

The week on the ASX

The S&P/ASX 200 closed the week to 28 August 2026 at 9,092.3, up 33.4 points or 0.37%, with the whole gain coming from a 2.50% rise in Materials while Wednesday's July inflation print sent everything priced off the bond curve lower. Trimmed-mean inflation printed at 3.6% year on year against a 3.5% forecast, pushing Australian 2-year and 10-year yields to their highest since May and the 30-year to multi-year highs. The index peaked at 9,164.6 on Tuesday, surrendered 126.4 points across Wednesday and Thursday, then recovered 54.1 of them on Friday.

Materials set its first record close since 17 June on Monday 24 August, when BHP.AU rose 3.4% to an all-time high alongside copper at US$6.66/lb and gold at US$4,602/oz. Uranium names ran with them after the NYSE-listed Global X Uranium ETF closed 5.0% higher at a two-month high overnight: PDN.AU +11.3%, SLX.AU +11.4% and DYL.AU +10.6% in that single session.

Results supplied the rest. Eight of the ten largest weekly moves came directly off FY26 or first-half numbers in the last full week of the August calendar, and the spread between best and worst ran to 71.5 percentage points. Among the large caps, ANN.AU gained 17.45% across the week after Monday's FY26 result, and RHC.AU added 14.51%, most of it in a 13.7% Thursday move on its own full-year numbers.

Sector scorecard (5-day)

• Best: Materials (XMJ) +2.50%, the first record close for the sector since 17 June
• Worst: Communication Services (XTJ) -2.23%
• Dispersion (best minus worst): 4.73 points
• 1.82% for Consumer Staples and 1.11% for Health Care were the only other advances above 1%
• A-REIT -1.92%, Consumer Discretionary -1.70% and Energy -1.37% took the rate-sensitive and oil-linked losses
• Financials -0.30% on the week, and that was after a 0.75% Friday bounce off a 10-week low
• All Ordinaries Gold (XGD) +2.23% and ASX 200 Resources (XJR) +2.13% confirm the move was resources-wide, not a single-commodity trade

Top movers, week ending 28 August

Three more results reactions cleared 13% without making the table: GDG.AU -16.01%, MFG.AU -13.56% and CBO.AU -16.62%, the last of those a 14.85% Friday fall on 7.2m shares against a 1.4m daily average.

Friday US session

• S&P 500: 7,711.76 (-0.25%)
• Nasdaq: 26,402.42 (-0.52%)
• Dow: 53,559.99 (-0.02%)
• VIX: 14.43

Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh delivered his first Jackson Hole address on Friday 28 August with the 30-year Treasury yield at 5.19%, down from the 5.34% it reached the previous week, its highest since 2007. Futures closed the session pricing roughly a 35% chance of a 25 basis point rise at the 16 September FOMC meeting. Across the full week the S&P 500 added 0.49%, the Nasdaq 0.85% and the Dow 0.53%, clawing back part of the prior week's 1.43% S&P 500 decline, and the VIX fell 4.63% to 14.43.

Brent finished the week at US$88.10 a barrel, down 6.66%, after Iran and Oman reached a revenue-sharing agreement covering the Strait of Hormuz and Saudi Arabia lifted loadings from Persian Gulf terminals. WTI fell 4.20% to US$83.40 and gold gave up 2.04% to US$4,529.90 an ounce, while copper held a 1.21% weekly gain at US$6.659/lb. AUD/USD ended at 0.7164, down 0.15% on the week after touching 0.7195 on Thursday, which limits the translation benefit for USD earners such as CSL.AU into FY27.

Macro themes that played out

The July CPI indicator released 26 August put trimmed-mean inflation at 3.6% year on year against a 3.5% forecast, unchanged from June. Headline CPI eased to 3.5% from 3.8%, but the monthly reading rose 1.0% against a 0.8% expectation, with Housing +5.0%, Food and non-alcoholic beverages +3.2% and Recreation and culture +2.6% the largest annual contributors.

Household spending on 27 August ran at close to four times the forecast pace, up 1.1% month on month against 0.3% expected and 7% year on year against 5.7%. Recreation and culture spending rose 1.5% and health spending 1.2%. Analysts ended the week split roughly evenly on a 25 basis point rise at the RBA's 28 to 29 September meeting, with a hike fully priced by the 2 to 3 November decision.

China's July industrial profits grew 11.2% year on year, down from 15.1% in June and the slowest pace of 2026. Factory-gate price growth weakened for the first time since November, and production, consumption and investment all missed forecasts. That is the demand backdrop underneath the same iron ore and copper names that delivered the index its 0.37% weekly gain.

Tech ran the widest two-way swing of any sector without finishing far from flat. Info Tech fell 5.7% across Wednesday and Thursday, then rebounded on Friday behind a US software rally, with XRO.AU +4.78% and WTC.AU +2.68% on the day, leaving the sector down 0.47% for the week.

Week ahead, Mon to Fri (AEST)

• Mon 31 Aug: Final day of the August reporting season. July private sector credit plus June-quarter company gross profits and inventories at 11:30am. China releases its August NBS PMIs.
• Tue 1 Sep: July building approvals and the June-quarter current account at 11:30am, the latter carrying the net exports contribution that feeds Wednesday's GDP. US ISM manufacturing PMI and July JOLTS job openings land overnight.
• Wed 2 Sep: June-quarter GDP at 11:30am, the largest domestic release of the week and the first quarterly read on whether the July spending strength was already building through Q2. US ADP employment change overnight.
• Thu 3 Sep: July goods trade balance at 11:30am. US ISM services PMI overnight.
• Fri 4 Sep: US August non-farm payrolls, unemployment rate and average hourly earnings at 10:30pm, the last labour print before the 16 September FOMC.

No RBA meeting falls inside the week. The next Monetary Policy Board decision is 29 September, which is also the meeting the market is pricing at roughly even odds of a hike.

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