“So far Santa looks to have been absent – or may have come early in November … now giving way to a focus on uncertainties around the impact of Trump’s policies and uncertainty about the Fed and RBA,” Oliver said.

Commonwealth Bank - the largest stock on the ASX - fell by 3.7 per cent, and was joined in the red by ANZ (down 2.3 per cent), NAB (down 2.2 per cent) and Westpac (down 1.2 per cent). Macquarie (down 2.3 per cent) also lost, while insurers Suncorp (down 1.8 per cent) and QBE (down 1 per cent) retreated.

Loading

Mining giants BHP (down 0.2 per cent) and Rio Tinto (down 0.6 per cent) slid, while Fortescue gained 2 per cent. Bellevue Gold (down 5.6 per cent), Newmont (down 1.6 per cent) and Northern Star (down 0.5 per cent) continued a downward trajectory after gold prices tumbled to their lowest in a month earlier this week.

Trading on Friday afternoon was hampered by a technical issue delaying the settlement of trades.

“We are continuing to receive new trades from market operators and the clearing process is operating as normal,” an ASX spokesperson said. “Every effort is being made to resolve the issue by the end of today.”

Sycamore didn’t expect this week’s downturn until January and didn’t rule out the possibility of a rally in the first few weeks of the new year.

“It’s been a funny old week, and it can happen around this time of the year,” Sycamore said. “It has caught people off guard, but it has happened previously.”

Kmart and Bunnings owner Wesfarmers (down 5 per cent) retreated after telling shareholders it had agreed to sell its Coregas industrial gas manufacturer and supplier for $770 million. It will be sold to a subsidiary of Nippon Sanso Holdings, which is listed on the Tokyo stock exchange and headquartered in Japan.

Aristocrat Leisure (down 0.5 per cent), Harvey Norman (down 1.1 per cent), JB Hi-Fi (down 2.4 per cent) and Breville (down 0.6 per cent) were among the other consumer discretionary shares in the red.

Gains from Woodside (up 2 per cent), Santos (up 0.6 per cent) and Ampol (up 1.6 per cent) spurred the energy sector to a 1.2 per cent rise on Friday. It joined utilities as the only other industry sector with significant gains, amid share price rises for Origin Energy (up 1.4 per cent), Meridian (up 3.1 per cent), Mercury New Zealand (up 4.9 per cent) and AGL (up 2.2 per cent).

In the US, the S&P 500 rose 0.2 per cent in afternoon trading (US time) a day after tumbling 2.9 per cent following the Federal Reserve’s prediction. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 96 points, or 0.2 per cent, as of 1.03pm Eastern time, following Wednesday’s drop of more than 1100 points. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2 per cent.

Indexes are still near their records, and the S&P 500 is still on track for one of its best years of the millennium. Wednesday’s drop just took some of the enthusiasm out of the market, which critics had already warned was overly buoyant and would need everything to go correctly to justify its high prices.

Traders are now expecting the Federal Reserve to deliver just one or maybe two cuts to interest rates next year, according to data from CME Group. Some are even betting on none. A month ago, the majority saw at least two cuts in 2025 as a safe bet.

The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.