The Australian sharemarket has opened lower in a broad-based selloff led by technology stocks

The Australian sharemarket has opened lower in a broad-based selloff led by technology stocks after US President Donald Trump escalated his trade conflict with China following Beijing's tighter rare earth restrictions.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is down 48.5 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 8909.80 as of 10.05am AEST , with 8 out of the 11 sectors in the red, led by heavy losses in tech and energy.
"Futures markets warn of an ugly day's trading in the Asia Pacific region. Hong Kong and Tokyo are expected to shed 5 per cent at the opening," said Michael McCarthy, a market strategist at online trading platform Moomoo.
Losses in Australia were contained because of the index's defensive mix of miners and domestic banks, the strategist noted.
And Wall Street is set to rebound on Monday with US futures indicating that the E-mini S&P 500 futures will rally 0.9 per cent, and the Nasdaq rise 1.3 per cent.
On the ASX, the local tech sector tracked a weaker lead from Wall Street, falling nearly 3 per cent. Life360 shed 4 per cent, WiseTech and Megaport both lost around 3 per cent.
Energy also weighed despite a rally in oil prices, and the big four banks also modestly fell.
In commodities, gold scaled a fresh record high in early trade on Monday at $US4059.30, boosting miners of the precious metal. Regis Resources soared 7 per cent, Newmont advanced 3.9 per cent, and Evolution Mining added 2.8 per cent.
Silver also rode the rally, with Sun Silver surging 11 per cent, and Andean Silver up 1.6 per cent. In contrast, the big mining groups eased with BHP down 1 per cent, Rio Tinto 0.6 per cent lower. Companies in uranium and lithium also fell.
In corporate news, Qantas dropped 1.3 per cent after hackers leaked nearly 5.7 million customer's records on the dark web. Cloud-based software company Salesforce declined to pay a ransom to the notorious hacking group Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters.
Stocks on the move
Treasury Wines was the biggest loser, down 11 per cent, after the Penfolds owner dumped earnings guidance because of weaker-than-expected trading in China and halted its $200 million share buyback.
Vulcan Energy dropped 4.4 per cent despite an offtake agreement with a unit of natural resources giant Glencore to provide battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) from its Lionheart site in Europe.
ANZ edged 0.2 per cent lower, after CEO Nuno Matos revealed a strategy plan that featured the end of a share buyback and a small discount to the next two dividend reinvestment plans. It also expects to maintain its dividend this year.
Ainsworth Game Technology fell 1.9 per cent following the resignation of CEO Harald Neumann, days after a powerful American gaming regulator told him to withdraw his request for a gaming licence.
Toro Energy surged 41 per cent on news Canada's uranium company IsoEnergy will increase its stake and buy all remaining shares in a $75 million scheme implementation deal.
Fletcher Building retreated 4.5 per cent following a trading update that highlighted a margin contraction in its heavy building materials volumes.

Sumber : AFR