Despite highs on Wall St overnight, the ASX is lower today.
The S&P/ASX200 had dropped 21.30 points or 0.29% to 7,399.10 at time of writing.
The index has lost 0.33% for the last five days, but sits 3.06% below its 52-week high.
Bottom performing stocks in the index are Nufarm Limited down 6.77% and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) down 6.2%.
Banks have been a big drain today.
ANZ was down 1.4% to $28.02, NAB fell 0.9% to $28.98 and Westpac lost 0.8% to $22.56.
Others on the slide were Seek down 1.8% to $35.10 despite reporting profits towards the higher end of its $450 million range.
It’s been a bad day for gold miners too. Ramelius Resources fell 2.7% to $1.72, while St Barbara dipped 2% to $1.56 and Northern Star dropped 2% to $10.26.
On the flipside, IT, Discretionary, Utilities and Health Care have performed the best with CSL and Wesfarmers up about 1%, Afterpay up 1.8% and Xero up 2.1%
Wage growth rises
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has reported wages growth in the September quarter of 0.6% from 0.4% in the June quarter. This is in line with economist forecasts.
Also in line with consensus was the annual growth rate which climbed from 1.7% in the year to the June quarter to 2.2% in the year to September.
Private sector wages grew 0.6%, while the public sector wasn’t too far behind at 0.5%.
However, annual wage growth did fall to a record low of 1.4% during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and there are pockets of wage pressure.
“Pockets of wage pressure continued to build for skilled construction-related, technical and business services roles, leading to larger ad hoc rises as businesses looked to retain experienced staff and attract new staff,” the ABS added.
Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory recorded the highest quarterly growth, at 1%, while South Australia recorded the lowest, at 0.7%, however, the former recorded the highest rate of annual wage growth at 2.7%, with South Australia the lowest, at 1.8%.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is looking for annual growth of 3% to keep inflation sustainable and within the 25 to 3% target range.
Final vote on Afterpay looms
The Square acquisition of Afterpay Ltd (ASX:APT) is now less than three weeks away, with chairman Elana Rubin and co-CEO Anthony Eisen finalising their pitches to shareholders ahead of the final vote.
At this morning’s annual general meeting, Rubin called Afterpay and Square complementary with the acquisition to create “opportunity to grow both organisations via strategic synergies and deepen the relationships between merchants and customers”.
“It also provides an exceptional opportunity for our team members to become part of a high-growth global company,” she said.
Afterpay co-CEOs Anthony Eisen and Nick Molnar addressed the company’s shareholders at a virtual AGM, highlighting the expansion into new revenue streams and a focus on omni-channel solutions for retailers.
“I acknowledge we have the EGM in a few weeks, and so I will keep my comments brief, but I know I speak on behalf of everyone at Afterpay when I say that we are tremendously excited by the prospect of bringing together the ecosystems of these two fantastic businesses,” Eisen said.
“As Elana mentioned, we strongly believe in the compatibility, not just of our operations, but of our team culture and our commitment to improving financial well-being.”
Molnar said: “I acknowledge we have the EGM in a few weeks, and so I will keep my comments brief, but I know I speak on behalf of everyone at Afterpay when I say that we are tremendously excited by the prospect of bringing together the ecosystems of these two fantastic businesses."
The Afterpay vote will be held on December 6, however, this would seem a formality as Square shareholders backed the deal in a vote on November 4.
On the small cap front
Galileo Mining Ltd (ASX:GAL) is up 21.95%. GAL intersected massive sulphides during aircore drilling at the fully-owned Norseman Project, located along the Kambalda nickel belt of Western Australia.
Blue Star Helium Ltd (ASX:BNL, OTC:BSNLF) is up 15.09%. BNL has identified high concentrations of 8.8% helium in the BBB#1 water well within the Voyager Prospect in Las Animas County, Colorado.
BlackEarth Minerals NL (ASX:BEM) is up 8.70%. BEM has materially increased its total graphite inventory by tonnes and grade at its 100%-owned Maniry Graphite Project in Southern Madagascar, with the completion of a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimation for the Razafy Northwest deposit.
Amplia Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:ATX) is 8.11% higher after receiving new data from its recent Phase 1 clinical trial of AMP945 in healthy human volunteers showing that safe and well-tolerated doses given as an oral capsule can achieve the desired outcome of reducing Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) activity.
Brookside Energy Ltd (ASX:BRK) is up 4.35%. BRK progressed construction of its second well, Rangers 36-25 SXH 1, in the SWISH Area of Interest (AOI) within Oklahoma's world-class Anadarko Basin with the completion of an 80-foot hole for the well’s conductor casing.