Afternoon trading January 18

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1, @Patterns and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

The ASX fell for a fifth day as unexpectedly soft jobs data failed to offset fears that rate cuts may start later this year than markets have priced in.

The ASX 200 reached mid-session 43 points or 0.58% in the red as a mid-morning partial recovery stuttered. Property and energy stocks led a decline that lowered all sectors.

The market faced early selling pressure following overnight weakness on Wall Street as robust US retail sales and an unexpected increase in UK inflation prompted investors to pare bets that global rates could start to fall within months.

Aussie shares caught a brief mid-morning up-lift from news that total employment unexpectedly contracted by 65,100 positions last month. Economists had anticipated an increase in employment of more than 17,000 new positions. The jobless rate held steady at 3.9%. The December setback unwound more than half the employment gains seen through October and November.

Job losses should in theory help ease inflationary pressures on the economy, freeing the Reserve Bank to consider interest rate cuts.

However, David Taylor, ABS head of labour statistics, cautioned that "While the December employment fall was large, the number of employed people was still 52,000 higher than September. Looking over the past twelve months, seasonally adjusted employment increased by an average of 32,000 people per month, showing reasonably strong underlying growth during 2023."


Personal trading: Tough market at the moment. Some savage beatings out there. December seems like a long time ago. I thrashed around this morning to no great result.