Markets at Midday: ASX 200 lower, Energy stocks bounce, Banks eye nine-day losing streak

The S&P/ASX 200 is trading 68 pts lower (-0.77%) at noon.

What a timeless classic – ASX 200 down while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both close at fresh all-time highs overnight. While Wall Street continues to rally off the back of a V-shaped bounce for tech stocks, we're grappling with a likely nine-day losing streak for Financials and softness across most sectors.

Let’s dive in

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Midday market summary

Data as at 12:00 pm,

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Today’s big story: Banks continue to skid

It's a fairly quiet day on markets (besides a handful of mining-related quarterlies). The S&P/ASX 200 Financials Index is on an interesting skid, that'll likely hit nine days as of market close today. The Index is down 5.5% since 10 April, weighed by a broad range of updates from various banks:

• Westpac (15-Apr): An unscheduled Q2 trading update implied softer-than-expected 1H26 revenues, with pressure from margin and treasury markets income partly offset by better cost control. Westpac shares dipped 2.6% on the day.

• NAB (21-Apr): Shares dipped 3.6% after management increased impairment charges reflecting forward looking adjustments for sectors exposed to the current Iran conflict, most notably agriculture, transport and manufacturing.

• Bank of Queensland (20-Apr): Reported its 1H26 result, where cash NPAT fell short of market expectations and net interest margin deteriorated (vs. expectations of slight growth). The stock tumbled 9.0% on the day.

So now you've got a situation where negative updates and read throughs are starting to pop up, at a time where the index was trading within 0.1% of all-time highs (prior to the losing streak). Starting to get oversold? Yes ... but against a weakening fundamental backdrop.

S&P/ASX 200 Financials daily chart (Source: TradingView)

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Sector moves: Energy stocks bounce

The ASX 200 Energy sector is up 2.1%, following a six-day skid where its given back 7.3%. The energy complex is trading broadly higher today, including uranium, oil and gas, refiners and coal names.

There's been a real reluctance for energy stocks to underwrite/price in the current oil environment and this really reflects how markets continue to expect the Iran conflict to ease and Hormuz flows to recover. But the real world is showing an immense tightness among physical markets, where physical crude prices have hit record levels of US$150 a barrel and global oil inventories have experienced the steepest monthly draws on record since 2017. Goldman Sachs says oil inventories are likely to reach all-time lows, even if the Strait reopens by late April.

Source: Goldman Sachs

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Must read announcements 

• Perseus Mining (PRU): Q3 production and AISC missed estimates, but cash and bullion hit $817m and FY26 guidance reaffirmed; acquired 9.9% of Aurum Resources and sold Meyas Sand project for $260m.

• Regis Resources (RRL): Q3 AISC beat estimates by 5% with record cash and bullion of $1.13bn, though growth capex guidance lifted and AISC expected toward top of range due to higher diesel and royalty costs.

• Elevra Lithium (ELV): Record Q3 revenue of $81m (+22% QoQ) driven by a 46% jump in realised spodumene prices and record 94% plant utilisation, partly offset by a 9% rise in unit costs.

• Resolute Mining (RSG): Q1 production and AISC both missed estimates, but strong gold prices drove revenue up 68% and net cash up 51% QoQ to $315m; FY26 guidance maintained.

• Black Cat Syndicate (BC8): Q3 gold production missed guidance by ~9%, but transition to 100% BC8 ore from 28 March expected to deliver materially higher cash margins from Q4.

Capital raisings

• Adisyn (AI1) secures A$14m placement led by Regal and Meitav

• American Uranium (AMU) entitlement issue prospectus

• Cavalier Resources (CVR) pre-production placement raises $4m

• Omega Oil & Gas (OMA) raises A$60m to fund upgraded 2026/27 Taroom Trough program

• Papyrus Australia (PPY) capital raising

• Resolution Minerals (RML) raises $20m to accelerate US critical minerals strategy

• Xpedra Resources (XPD) raises $3.2m to accelerate exploration

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Thinking out loud: Cochlear

Cochlear was absolutely eviscerated on Wednesday. It's not often you see a ~$11 billion market cap company trade like a microcap explorer. Cochlear recorded its worst one-day session on record, down 40.7% in a single day after downgrading its FY26 underlying NPAT guidance to $290-330 million or ~30% lower (at the midpoint) compared to its February guidance of $435-460 million. Let's get straight into the key talking points.

• This was a horrific update: The magnitude of the downgrade was extreme and implies 2H26 underlying net profit of just $95-135m (vs. $194.8m in 1H26). That's a 41% half-on-half decline!

• What made it worse: Cochlear was trading at $167 prior to the update, with most analysts targets sitting around $200-300 (very wide dispersion), with a Buy rating. In addition, Cochlear just reaffirmed that prior $435-460m guidance just two months ago at its 1H26 result, though noted they will track towards the lower end.

• Where to from here: Cochlear was trading at 32x prior to the update, having traded around 40-50x in the last couple of years. What multiple would you be willing to pay for such a deteriorating business that's done nothing but miss/downgrade earnings in the last two years? You'd probably say a single digit multiple. While Cochlear is extremely oversold, the business has shown more than enough evidence that its valuation is no longer consistent with a healthy, growing business. It's going to get volatile from here, but you could argue the path of least resistance is even lower.

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Intraday winners and losers

The below tables observe the S&P/ASX 200 stocks with the largest increase/decrease from today's open price.

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Look at that price action!

Cochlear opened higher today, but quickly reversed back into negative territory. From intraday high to current lows, that's a 6.5% reversal! This marks a classic oversold bounce met with broad selling pressure from retail and institutional players alike, following a severe loss of confidence in the business.

Cochlear intraday price chart (Source: TradingView)

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Broker moves

BHP Group (BHP)

• Retained at outperform at CLSA; Price Target: $59.50 from $56.00

• Retained at buy at Goldman Sachs; Price Target: $58.40 from $57.10

• Retained at sector perform at RBC Capital Markets; Price Target: $56.00

Bank of Queensland (BOQ)

• Downgraded to underperform from neutral at Macquarie; Price Target: $5.70 from $6.00

• Downgraded to neutral from buy at UBS; Price Target: $7.00 from $7.50

Cochlear (COH)

• Downgraded to sell from neutral at Citi; Price Target: $95.00 from $210.00

• Retained at positive at E&P; Price Target: $155.70 from $250.49

• Retained at neutral at JPMorgan; Price Target: $111.00 from $187.90

• Upgraded to equal-weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley; Price Target: $119.00 from $194.00

• Downgraded to neutral from buy at UBS; Price Target: $109.00 from $302.00

Iluka Resources (ILU)

• Upgraded to buy from hold at Argonaut Securities; Price Target: $9.50 from $6.00

• Downgraded to hold from buy at Canaccord Genuity; Price Target: $8.10 from $6.55

• Upgraded to hold from sell at Ord Minnett; Price Target: $8.00 from $5.00

Macquarie Group (MQG)

• Downgraded to neutral from buy at UBS; Price Target: $235.00

Northern Star Resources (NST)

• Retained at buy at Canaccord Genuity; Price Target: $31.45 from $33.00

• Retained at underweight at Jarden; Price Target: $22.30 from $22.50

• Retained at neutral at JPMorgan; Price Target: $22.00 from $20.00

• Retained at sector perform at RBC Capital Markets; Price Target: $28.50

Scentre Group (SCG)

• Upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies; Price Target: $4.00

Treasury Wine Estates (TWE)

• Retained at hold at Jefferies; Price Target: $4.60 from $4.00

• Retained at neutral at JPMorgan; Price Target: $5.30

• Retained at sector perform at RBC Capital Markets; Price Target: $5.10 from $5.70

Markets at Midday is in a pilot phase. Let us know what you think!