A surprise surge in jobs put the Australian share market on track for its best session in more than a week as traders snapped up companies placed to benefit from economic growth.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 36 points or 0.7% higher at 5421, led by gains in metals & mining +1.7%, industrials +1% and financials +0.6%. Defensive sectors, including telecoms +0.1%, consumer staples +0.1% and health +0.2%, brought up the rear.
The dollar jumped three-quarters of a cent after unexpectedly strong employment data soothed fears that the economy was losing traction. There was a net gain of 47,300 jobs last month as 80,500 full-time roles replaced 33,300 part-time positions and participation rose to 64.8% from 64.5%. Unemployment was flat at 6%. The dollar was lately buying 90.57 US cents.
"The labour market is on the mend," Moody's Analytics associate economist Katrina Ell told Fairfax. "Encouragingly, there was outsized growth in full-positions, reversing the trend of the past year or so. Recent gains in the forward indicators are flowing through to the hard data."
Gains were modest in Asia, where China's Shanghai Composite rallied 0.46%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat and Japan's Nikkei up 0.16%. Emini Dow futures were recently up 26 points or nearly 0.2%.
Crude oil futures bounced seven cents this morning to US$98.12 a barrel. Spot gold was $4.20 ahead at US$1,371.50 an ounce.
The capital raisings piled up this morning. Must have been at least half a dozen? A possible sign that the rainmakers think they ought to cash in now in case the recent market wobbles turn into something serious. I've spent the week re-fighting Monday's battles and this morning exited SIR, the last of several poor entries that day, for a small profit. Could have done better there with more courage. With retraces scarce, my only buy today was MNC. Also supported the buying depth in ADO, MNW, SOI and OBJ without getting hit.
PS Endless, sorry for the slow reply - been distracted this morning. As 64 mentioned, LYC has started talking about risk and using the phrase "on the basis of a going concern". Never a good sign. I learned the hard way to stay away from companies where the loss of the entire investment becomes a possibility.
