ASX on pace for 2.2pct decline for week

With a few hours of trading left, the ASX200 was down 2.27 per cent for the holiday-shortened week. 

Barring a miraculous turnaround it will have lost ground for four of the past five weeks and at noon had fallen 7.4 per cent since August 19.

The losses came after the US Federal Reserve on Thursday (Australia time) raised rates by three-quarters of a percentage point for a third consecutive month.

Switzerland's central bank made a similar move, while the Bank of England opted for a smaller hike of half a percentage point.

While the Fed's hike was expected, the big shock came in the "dot plots", the central bank's forecasts of future rate hikes, which were more hawkish than the last prediction from June.

"The Fed is also more willing to explicitly forecast a recession in the coming year," wrote Betashares chief economist David Bassanese in a note.

Wall Street took a dive and with trading suspended Thursday to mourn the Queen, the ASX has been in catch-up mode on Friday morning.

Every sector was lower at midday, and every sector other than mining was down at least one per cent.

Consumer discretionary shares were down by nearly four per cent and tech was close behind. Property had dropped 3.5 per cent.

All the big retail banks were lower with CBA falling the most, by 1.8 per cent to $93.78. The others had dropped between 1.1 and 1.6 per cent, and Macquarie had retreated 2.8 per cent.

Wesfarmers had dropped 3.9 per cent to a nearly three-month low of $43.39 and Woolworths was down 1.7 per cent to $33.89.

The heavyweight mining sector was down 0.4 per cent, but the three biggest players had gained ground.

BHP was up 0.9 per cent to $38.30, Fortescue Metals had added 1.3 per cent to $16.755 and Rio Tinto was up 1.3 per cent to $92.42.

The energy sector was down 2.1 per cent but coalminers New Hope and Whitehaven were both up slightly more than three per cent to new all-time highs as coal prices surge. Yancoal had added 2.1 per cent to $6.25.