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ASX up 0.8%: Australian employment sees modest increase in January

PUBLISHED

2024-02-15

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In January, Australian employment saw a modest increase of 500 jobs, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.1 percent from the previous 3.9 percent, contrary to the consensus expectation of 30,000 jobs created and a 4 percent unemployment rate. Despite inflation slowing, the labor market remains robust, posing challenges for the Reserve Bank to achieve its inflation target; upcoming releases of the Wage Price Index and CPI will provide further insight into inflation trends.

At 11:30am, the S&P/ASX 200 is 0.80 per cent higher at 7,608.40.

The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 64 points.

Best and worst performers

The best-performing sector is Information Technology, up 6.49 per cent. The worst-performing sector is Energy, down 1.11 per cent.

The best-performing large cap is Altium (ASX:ALU), trading 28.56 per cent higher at $65.90. It is followed by shares in Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) and Xero (ASX:XRO).

The worst-performing large cap is Pro Medicus (ASX:PME), trading 7.09 per cent lower at $100.43. It is followed by shares in IDP Education (ASX:IEL) and Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC).

Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at US$2005.60 an ounce.

One Australian dollar is buying 64.85 US cents.

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