Afternoon trading February 15

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

A bounce-back on Wall Street and a $9.1 billion bid for software designer Altium helped the Australian share market push towards its first gain of the week.

The ASX 200 rallied 50 points or 0.66% by the halfway mark. The index tempered its rally after a mid-morning report showed unemployment climbed last month to the highest in two years.

The tech sector set the pace after Japanese chipmaker Renesas scooped up Altium at almost a third higher than the Australian company's last traded share price. Altium stock jumped 28.33% to $65.78, near the offer price of $68.50.

The tech sector soared 5.8% as the halo effect from the deal lifted Life360 6.1%, Xero 4.33% and WiseTech 3.53%. Consumer stocks and REITs also had a strong morning, boosted by trading updates from Wesfarmers +5.64% and Goodman Group +4.73%.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.1% last month from 4% in December, according to ABS figures. Net employment increased by just 500 jobs. Market pricing indicated traders now expect the first interest rate cut to come in September, in from November prior to the report.

"With unemployment remaining stable and the number of unemployed people increasing by 22,000 people, the unemployment rate rose to 4.1 per cent in January," Bjorn Davis, ABS head of labour statistics, said. "This was the first time in two years, since January 2022, that the unemployment rate had been above 4 per cent."

US stocks rebounded overnight from Tuesday's bloodbath as investors took a more measured perspective on unexpectedly hot inflation data. The S&P 500 bounced 0.96%.


Personal trading: All a bit meh. Half pip from RXL, quarter-pip from MKG (using centrepoint). Thin stuff.