The share market shrugged off news of a rise in unemployment and soft Chinese trade data to edge higher for the first time in four days
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was four points or less than 0.1% ahead at 5456 as gains in miners and select defensive sectors offset falls in the big banks, health stocks and consumer staples. The index had lost more than 70 points this week through to yesterday's close.
The market was trading modestly higher before the 11.30am EST release of June jobs figures that saw the unemployment rate increase to 6% from an upwardly revised 5.9% in May. The increase was largely attributable to an increase in participation during a month when the economy created 15,900 new positions, more than the 12,900 jobs anticipated by economists. The dollar jumped violently around the release of the data but was lately less than a tenth of a cent lower, buying 94.08 US cents.
China's trade performance improved during June by less than economists predicted. Exports were 7.2% stronger than a year earlier, higher than May's 7% gain but below the 10%+ gain predicted by economists surveyed by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. Imports improved 5.5% following a 1.6% drop in May, close to expectations. Read more here.
China's Shanghai Composite was little moved by the data, lately up 0.03%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.24% and Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.24%. Dow futures were recently off 13 points or 0.1%.
Crude oil futures slipped another eight cents this morning to US$101.84 a barrel. Spot gold strengthened $1.20 to US$1,329.50 an ounce.
A slow morning so I'd like to start the rumour that BHP will follow the likes of LTX and PIM in abandoning the dying old-world industry of mining for the lucrative opportunities in emerging technologies. Analysts expect a massive re-rate as this 20th century dinosaur embraces the cloud. BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie this morning announced that the company had swapped its mining assets for the rights to supply free wi-fi to the Burnside Village Shopping Centre in the eastern suburbs of of Adelaide. Mackenzie would not be drawn on speculation that the company was negotiating the launch of a line of 'seven-star premium hotels' in Bolivia with Jay Osmond, least known of the popular 1970s singing troupe. However, he confirmed that the company had bought the rights to technology that facilitates the transmission of old episodes of 'The Donny & Marie Show' over dial-up modems to the three people in the Northern Territory still using them. The company explored the possibility of running online auditions to 'discover the next Osmond Brothers' but abandoned the idea when they learned that Channel Ten has already licensed the concept. Mackenzie denied he had 'gone troppo'."At current commodity prices our business model is broken," he said. "Fortunately there is a bandwagon, so we've climbed on board that and awarded ourselves massive bonuses. Make mine a Bolly." Trading: AMC was my only buy this morning in the anticipation that it would hold the $10 level that has provided support since November. Mildly ahead on the trade but hoped for a better bounce. Holding JHX overnight paid off. Also got stuck in two zombie stocks yesterday with so little volume they are not worth mentioning.
