Good morning folks, and welcome to my very last pre-open. Yes, the last one.

You all have become like a second family to me, and I will miss you all greatly. But times change, people do enevitably move on, and my time is now. People don’t always get the chance to say bye on HotCopper, so I do feel grateful for that at least.

I thought about thanking people individually, but that list would be enormous, and I know I will forget some anyway. And I don’t want to make too much of a spectacle of myself, but I’ve enjoyed every moment here. I was thinking about what made me hang around and put the time and effort in, and in the end... it’s the community that sets it apart, and everyone contributes to that feeling. You can have the shiniest & flashiest site in existence, but in the end for a forum to thrive, it comes down to its community. You all are what make HotCopper what it is, please don’t forget that.

I’ve always been a more of a sit in the background and just go about my work kind of guy… But I hope I’ve done a decent enough job here, and offered either something interesting or entertaining.

And obviously, this means someone is going to need to take over next week and beyond. I know whoever it is will do a great job.

Actually, I will mention one person. 6 months on and you are still very much missed@Cleo. That’s the kind of impact you had here, very few leave such a mark. If I have had even a fraction of the positive effect you did I’ll consider that a win.

I don’t want to ramble too much, just take care and be kind to one another, and have a wonderful day.

Onto the report one more time.

ASX Market Report

The ASX 200 drew out more supply as is struggled to break out from the area it has held for the week, closing flat for a second straight day. The ASX fell 1.2 points, or a whopping 0.02 percent. The All Ordinaries fell 9.8 points or 0.15 percent.

Australian jobs data showed unemployment held steady in May at a seasonally adjusted 5.2 percent, which was higher than expectations.

The IT sector took a battering on the back of Afterpay (APT) being ordered by the financial intelligence agency to appoints an external auditor to scrutinise it’s compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws. This sent Afterpay shares tumbling 12.05% lower ro $22.55. The news also sent it’s competitors sharply lower, with Zip Co (Z1P) shares falling 5.28%, Splitit Payments (SPT) dropping 4.79%, and Flexigroup (FXL) falling 5.75%.

Appen (APX) was also significantly lower, which fell 7.06% to $25.55 following the announcement the previous day aftermarket that the CEO had sold a little under 20% of their shares in the company.

The healthcare sector continued it yo-yo this week, still unable to decide if it is staying or going, spending the week switching form the largest gainer to the largest loser, then back to the largest gainer again on Thursday, where it rose 1.68%. Sector heavyweight CSL was the main reason for the rise, which was up 2.31% to $212.64 and more than cancelled out smaller droips in a number of other stocks.

Consumer discretionary stocks were down 2.45% after Wesfarmers (WES) dragged the sector lower with an update saying Target had continued to under-perform. Wesfarmers shares were 5.15% lower. The esecotr also saw drops in Harvey Norman (HVN), down 7.42%, G8 Education (GEM), down 5.81%, and JB Hi-Fi (JBH), which was down 4.5%.

Energy shares were another sector to see a large fall following crude oil prices dropping. Woodside Petroleum (WPL) fell 1.91% and shares in Santos (STO) 1.3%.

The mining sector was down 0.38%, with BHP down 0.48% to $39.56, Rio Tinto fell 0.55% to $101.85 and Fortescue Metals (FMG) down 3.02% to $8.34.

The big four banks were mostly positive, with Commonwealth Bank (CBA) up 0.69% to $80.42, ANZ up 0.6 per cent to $28.43, Westpac (WBC) up 0.32% to $28.13, and NAB the only one to fall, down 0.04% to $27.

Bingo Industries were the top gainer on the index, rising 5.08% to $2.07.

CountPlus (CUP) rose 37.11% to 66.5c after Commonwealth Bank said it was selling its advice business Count Financial to the firm.

At 7am AEST the Aussie dollar was buying 0.6916 USD, 0.5457 GBP, 0.6132 EUR, 74395 JPY, and 1.0525 NZD.

The ASX 200 futures were pointing towards a (you guessed it) a flat open.

Global Markets Report

Shares throughout Asia were a fairly mixed bunch, with the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng both flat, the Nikkei down 0.57%, and the Kospi down 0.27%.

Share in Eupore carried on the trend of indices struggling to do everything notable with a large number closing flat. Perhaps the most notable feature of it all is the lack of movements. The DAX rose 0.45%, the FTSE 100 was flat, as was the CAC 40 (France), The IBEX 35 (Spain), the AEX (Netherlands) and the SMI (Switzerland). The pan-European Stoxx 600 was slightly positive though, rising 0.14%.

The U.S markets were positive though, with the Dow rising 101.94 points or 0.39% to 22,106, the S&P 500 rose 12.27 points or 0.43% to 2,892, and the Nasdaq was the out-performer, rising 44.41 points or 0.57% to 7,837.

Reuters had this to say about the economic data released: “The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, potentially adding to concerns about the U.S. labor market after May job growth slowed. Other data showed import prices fell by the most in five months in May in the latest indication of muted inflation pressures, adding to expectations the Fed will cut rates this year. “

The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. dollar against six major currencies, rose 0.25%

Oil prices were in the headline following the attack on tow oil tankers off the coast of Iran. U.S. crude was up 2.23% to $52.28 per barrel, while Brent rose $1.14 to $61.31 per barrel.

The spot gold price was up 0.65% to $1,342 per ounce.

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