ASX down at noon after tech stocks savaged

Unless things turn around it will be the worst day for the sector since March 18, 2020, when it fell 8.8 per cent.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was faring somewhat better, down 52.7 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 7,012, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 58.3 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 7,243.9.

The energy and financial sectors had even managed to eke out modest gains, with both rising 0.1 per cent as NAB and CBA gained ground. 

Commonwealth Bank was up 1.3 per cent to $102.82 after Australia's biggest bank said its third-quarter cash profit had remained steady at $2.4 billion, with growth in home and business lending offsetting the impact of ongoing margin pressure.

"The March quarter underlined the disciplined execution of the group's strategy, focused on our core banking franchises, which delivered continued volume growth, sound portfolio credit quality and ongoing support for our customers and communities," Chief Executive Matt Comyn said.

But tech stocks were getting hammered after an overnight readout of US consumer prices showed inflation remains close to a 40-year high, putting pressure on the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more quickly than chairman Jerome Powell last week indicated it would.

Xero fell 12.1 per cent to a two-year low of $76.49 despite the Kiwi cloud-accounting company announcing operating revenue was up 29 per cent to $NZ1.1 billion in the 12 months to March 31.

Block was down 15.1 per cent to to $102.98, its lowest since its shares began trading on the ASX in February with the acquisition of Afterpay. 

The drop comes amid a sell-off in crypto-adjacent companies, as cryptocurrencies themselves collapse in value. 

Bitcoin has lost a crucial support level in the past few days and hit its lowest level since December 2020.

Wisetech Global was down 4.2 per cent, Altium had fallen 11.1 per cent to an 11-month low of $26.89, and Megaport, Novonix, Sezzle and Nitro Software had all fallen by between seven and eight per cent.