ASX falls as energy stocks sell off; Santos tumbles 12pc

The Australian sharemarket opened lower after energy stocks sold off following news that a takeover bid for the country's second-largest oil and gas producer Santos has collapsed.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.5 per cent, or by 46 points to 8772.5 at the start of trade, dragged by a nealy 5 per cent fall in the energy sector.
Santos was the worst performing stock on the ASX 200, tumbling 12 per cent after Abu Dhabi National Oil Co walked away from its $36 billion takeover offer for the country's second-largest oil and gas producer. Broker Jarden has downgraded the stock to an "underweight" rating from "overweight" on the news.
Elsewhere in the sector, Woodside Energy dropped 4.4 per cent and Karoon Energy lost 3.8 per cent.
Overnight on Wall Street, major US indices swung in choppy trading, briefly surging immediately after the Fed's latest policy decision and revised economic projections were released. Markets settled into the close to end the session mostly in line with where they were before the two releases.
Fed chairman Jerome Powell struck "a mildly hawkish tone in our view", Wells Fargo economists said in a note. "Rather, with policy still somewhat restrictive, chairman Powell characterised today's adjustment as a 'risk management cut' and the near-term monetary policy outlook as a 'meeting-by-meeting situation'."
Wells Fargo said it expects policymakers would "put more weight on employment and cut the federal funds rate by 25 basis points at each of its next two meetings, pushing the target range down to 3.50 per cent to 3.75 per cent by year-end".
In Australia, investors will be awaiting the August labour force report to be released at 11.30am. NAB said about the jobs data, "We expect unemployment at 4.3 per cent in August. The unemployment rate was 4.24 per cent in July. A low unemployment rate for the exiting eighth of the survey sample is the tiebreaker between 4.2 per cent and 4.3 per cent for our forecast. We expect an employment gain of +25k."
Stocks in focus
Macquarie Group held takeover talks with private equity giant Carlyle Group, but the discussions have since fizzled out. If a merger went ahead, it would create a global investment powerhouse with $1 trillion in combined assets. On Thursday, Carlyle's share price continued to rise from the revelations of Macquarie's interest, first reported by US outlet Semafor.
Macquarie shares were 0.2 per cent lower.
In corporate moves, Endeavour has appointed Woolworths executive Jeanette Fenske to head its BWS liquor chain, succeeding outgoing managing director Scott Davidson. Fenske is currently director of stores at Woolworths. Shares were down 0.1 per cent.

Sumber : AFR