Markets live updates: ASX to rise after fresh highs on Wall Street as US rate cut bets rise

Stock exchange operator ASX has reported a 6 per cent rise in net profit for the financial year, to $502.6 million.

Shareholders will receive a final dividend of 112.1 cents per share.

In the company’s report, ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse began by “acknowledging the challenges faced by ASX”.

“We recognise the status of our operational risk management and resilience has drawn regulator scrutiny and had reputational impact,” she said.

Ms Lofthouse described a 2024 ASX outage, regulatory scrutiny from ASIC and the RBA, and the corporate regulator’s ongoing inquiry as “serious matters”.

Last week, the ASX forecast additional operating costs of between $25 million and $35 million in the financial year ahead, as a result of legal and other costs to manage its response to the ASIC inquiry.

It follows a decade of troubles for the operator and some recent high-profile embarrassments — read more from chief business correspondent Ian Verrender:

Telco giant Telstra has posted a $2.17 billion statutory net profit for the year — nearly 34 per cent higher than 12 months ago.

The company announced an additional share buy-back of up to $1 billion, after a $750 on-market buy-back completed in June.

“This has been enabled by growth in earnings, and the strength of our balance sheet,” Telstra said.

Shareholders will receive a total of 19 cents per share in dividends for the year, up 5.6 per cent from a year earlier.

Commonwealth Bank‘s CEO Matt Comyn says he does not “worry too much about the near-term movements in the share price”, after CBA’s share price dropped more than 5 per cent yesterday, dragging down the broader market with it.

After a huge run up in the bank’s share price over the past year, leading analysts to highlight how it was impossible for the company to live up to the stock’s sky-high valuation, Mr Comyn said he was conscious that “there’s a lot of Australians that are invested in the performance”.

“Commonwealth Bank is owned by 13 million Australians … directly or indirectly, there’s a lot of interest in the share price for us,” Mr Comyn told The Business.

“[The] most important thing to do is to execute our strategy consistently, deliver a great proposition for our customers.”

Watch the interview with Matt Comyn and business editor Michael Janda:

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The profit reporting season for ASX-listed firms continues, with some big companies on today’s agenda.

You can search this calendar to see when stocks you hold or companies you’re interested in are reporting:

We’ll bring you across the results of the day shortly, they’re starting to hit the ASX.

Good morning, I’ll be joining you for the next few hours to take you through the morning’s market moves.

ASX futures are pointing to a modest rebound, after the benchmark index dropped 0.6 per cent, thanks to a 5 per cent-plus slump in CBA shares.

It follows gains on Wall Street overnight, with the Dow gaining 1 per cent and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at new highs.

Reporting season continues, with Telstra, Suncorp and ASX Ltd on the calendar today.

The main economic event will be the labour force data out at 11:30am AEST — forecasts are for the unemployment rate to improve slightly, from 4.3 per cent in June to 4.2 per cent in July.

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