ASX dips as banks weigh; Anthropic IPO lifts Wall Street

The Australian sharemarket opened lower on Tuesday despite Wall Street gains driven by Anthropic's IPO filing, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling 0.4 percent to 8775.90 as bank and consumer stocks declined. Losses in the Big Four banks and consumer sectors weighed on the local market, while mining and tech stocks advanced on AI-driven demand. Star Entertainment surged 17.4 percent after reporting its first positive quarterly earnings, and copper heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto both gained 1.7 percent. Anthropic filed for its long-awaited IPO on the Nasdaq under the symbol ANT, with investors estimating a valuation between $1.4 trillion and $1.5 trillion. Wall Street's S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent, while Nvidia gained 2.4 percent and Microsoft climbed 1.5 percent after announcing buyouts for about 60,000 workers.