The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX:XJO) dropped 3% today.
Pessimism seems to have returned because the boss of the US Federal Reserve downplayed how fast the US economy could bounce back.
The ASX 200 was a sea of red
There was a lot of red on the ASX today. There were two key industries that the market really punished, banks and travel companies.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price dropped 4.4%, the Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price dropped 6.1%, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) share price declined 6.2% and the National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) share price went down 5.4%.
Looking at ASX 200 travel shares, the Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB) share price plunged 10.1%, the Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price went down 10.4% and the Corporate Travel Management Ltd (ASX: CTD) share price declined 7.7%.
JB Hi-Fi Limited (ASX: JBH) fails to impress
The ASX 200 retailer revealed a trading update today. It was impressive, but the JB Hi-Fi share price still fell by more than 4%.
In the second half of FY20 to date, JB Hi-Fi Australia sales grew by 20%, JB Hi-Fi New Zealand sales dropped 19.3% and The Good Guys sales rose by 23.5%.
The New Zealand sales were impacted by the closure of stores due to restrictions.
The ASX 200 company is now expecting net profit to be in the range of $300 million to $305 million. This would be an increase of 20% to 22%. The profit growth includes an estimated impairment of New Zealand assets of around $25 million after tax.
IPH Ltd (ASX: IPH) share price rises again
The IPH share price went up another 4.3% today. Yesterday the ASX 200 IP company announced an acquisition called Baldwins Intellectual Property for $7.4 million.
It's based in New Zealand and was established in 1896. Baldwins' FY20 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) after normalisation adjustments for partner salaries was approximately NZ$2 million.
Clients include large multi national businesses, universities, government agencies, start-ups and individual inventors.
