News: XIJ Australian shares retreat as strong data raises rate concerns

	  ASX logs worst day since Oct. 30 

	  Miners, banks top drags on benchmark 

	  Strong employment, wage data raise rate concerns 

Australian shares declined on Thursday, a day after logging sharp gains, with strong employment and wages data further raising concerns over the central bank's monetary path.

The benchmark index S&P/ASX 200 (xjo) closed 0.7% lower at 7,058.400 points, marking their worst drop since Oct. 30.

Data released earlier in the day showed employment rebounded strongly in October, while wage data on Wednesday revealed a the largest increase on record last quarter, raising fears over interest rates.

"Whilst the RBA are unlikely to hike, employment and wages data remained firm enough to warrant a hawkish bias heading into next year," Matt Simpson, a senior market analyst at City Index said.

"From a technical perspective, the ASX was likely due a pullback following Wednesday's strong performance," Simpson added.

Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG said the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will need to see some easing in the labour market and inflation data to avoid raising rates early in 2024 - a prospect that unnerved the benchmark in the session.

Analysts at National Australia Bank (NAB), while they expect the central bank to stand pat on Dec. 5, they continue to predict a quarter-point rate hike in February.

The heavyweight mining index .AXMM fell 1% to record worst day in a week. BHP Group (BHP) fell 0.6%, while Rio Tinto fell 0.35%.

Financials .AXFJ lost around 0.8%, dragged by National Australia Bank (NAB) and ANZ Group (ANZ) which lost 1.2% and 3.3% respectively.

Among other sectors, energy stocks .AXEJ fell 1.2%, gold stocks .AXGD fell 2.3%, tech stocks .AXIJ dropped 1%, while real estate stocks .AXRE shed 0.83%.

The New Zealand benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) fell 1.07% to 11,230.87 points, recording its worst drop since Oct. 20.