AU Morning Wrap: ASX Falls 0.52%; Thodey Resigns as Tyro Chairman

Wall Street's main indices fell away in afternoon trade at the end of a month when investors gave up on the possibility of interest rate cuts this year. Stocks struggled for traction overnight as treasury yields hovered near their highest levels of the year.

Investors were drawing the curtain on a month to forget. The S&P 500 lost 2.6 per cent in February amid signs inflation was in danger of becoming embedded as labour markets showed little evidence of weakening. The Dow shed 4.2 per cent and the Nasdaq 1.1 per cent.

The materials sector had gains. Most other sectors were down, led by communication services at 1.4 per cent.

AMP and Dexus said it had agreed to extend the date to March 20 as it was still waiting on outstanding regulatory approval.

The purchase price remained at $225 million.

Thodey resigned from the company to take up new opportunities elsewhere after serving four and a half years on the board. Fiona Pak-Poy has been named as his replacement.

Tyro Payments chairman David Thodey has announced his resignation from the board, after three and a half years at the helm.

Thodey resigned from the company to take up new opportunities elsewhere after serving four and a half years on the board. Fiona Pak-Poy has been named as his replacement.

Revenue increased 1 per cent to $56 million while EBIDTA loss widened by 33 per cent to $7.7 million.

Revenue tumbled 46.2 per cent to $15.4 million in the six months to December 31.

The company, which did not declare a dividend, cited "declining consumer demand" and a strategic review that led to a "phasing out (of) underperforming products".

The company posted a net profit of $376,120 in the year earlier period.

• Iron ore overcame early weakness to rise for the first time in five sessions. Prices have been under pressure for a week after China imposed trading caps and announced a crackdown on pollution ahead of an annual meeting of parliament.

The most-traded ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange were this morning trading at 889 yuan (US$128.22) a tonne, up 0.4 per cent from Tuesday's daytime close.

• Oil trimmed a losing month. Brent crude settled US$1.44 or 1.75 per cent higher at US$83.89 a barrel. The rally cut the global benchmark's loss for the month to 0.7 per cent.

• Gold bounced off its weakest level of the year. Gold for April delivery settled US$11.80 or 0.7 per cent ahead at US$1,836.70 an ounce. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index bounced 1.09 per cent.