The ASX was lower today.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 dropped 132.10 points or 1.97% to 6,568.10. Over the last five days, the index has gained 0.61%, but is down 11.77% for the last year to date.
Bottom-performing stocks in this index were Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield down 6% and Tyro Payments Ltd down 7.69%.
Despite the downside, there were some winners, particularly on the small cap front. Blue Star Helium Ltd (ASX:BNL, OTC:BSNLF) gained 3.57%, SensOre Ltd (ASX:S3N) gained 1,3%, Highfield Resources Ltd (ASX:HFR) was 8.43% higher, ioneer Ltd rose 1.2% and Red River Resources Ltd (ASX:RVR) was 3.33% higher.
Most of the talk today centred on job numbers and wages.
What’s in the news
Unrealistic wage growth cap
VanEck head of investments and capital markets Russel Chesler believes Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe’s assertion that wages growth should be capped at 3.5% is unrealistic.
Chesler says that due to the tightness of the labour market and record level of job advertisements compared with restricted labour supply, the RBA governor has miscalculated.
“We are already seeing salaries rise up to 15% in sectors like finance and IT and other professional sectors, workers are going on strike to demand more money in their pay-packets and wage rises of 5%," he says.
“The labour market isn’t going to loosen anytime soon given the skilled labour shortage. The federal government has been very slow in processing visa and labour supply from offshore is still very restricted."
Chesler believes warnings of higher wage increases will fall on deaf ears.
"It is unrealistic to think that workers are not going to demand more in such a hot labour market and let their real wages fall backwards," he says.
“Inflation is going up to at least 7% by the year’s end. That is what the RBA is officially predicting, it could in fact get much worse given the RBA has been behind the eight-ball in seeing the current inflation blowout."
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported nearly 500,000 vacant jobs available across Australia.
There were 480,000 job vacancies in May, 58,000 more than in February 2022, and more than double the vacancies in February 2020 (227,000).
The number of job vacancies rose by 14% from February to May 2022, to almost half a million jobs.
"This reflected increasing demand for workers, particularly in customer facing roles, with businesses continuing to face disruptions to their operations, as well as ongoing labour shortages," ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis.
“The large growth in vacancies through the pandemic has coincided with a decline in the number of unemployed people. As a result, there was almost the same number of unemployed people and vacant jobs in May."
Here’s a look at five of today's top small-cap stories.
Duke Exploration confirms Mt Flora style vein hosted copper intersections at Bundarra Project
Duke Exploration Ltd (ASX:DEX) has received further preliminary results highlighting a potential Mt Flora vein style target from reverse circulation (RC) drilling at its flagship Bundarra Project in Queensland. Duke Exploration finished 23.72% higher.
Race Oncology fields data indicating Zantrene protects heart tissue from chemotherapy damage in mouse model, shares up
“This is the first evidence of its kind to demonstrate that there is a therapy that both targets the cancer and protects the heart," University of Newcastle associate professor Aaron Sverdlov said about Race Oncology Ltd (ASX:RAC)'s data.
Miramar Resources hones in on high-grade gold thanks to Gidji JV aircore results
Miramar Resources Ltd (ASX:M2R) has received multiple, high-grade gold results from aircore drilling at its 80%-owned Gidji JV Project in WA.
Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals lands IP Australia approval for bone marrow pathology treatment patent
“It is very exciting for the company’s strategic plans to have a patent which claims the treatment of people with osteoarthritis and bone marrow lesions with pentosan polysulphate sodium (PPS) and we expect further acceptance and grants in other territories in the coming months,” Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:PAR) chair Paul Rennie said.
Cooper Metals identifies multiple conductors in first airborne EM survey over Mt Isa East Copper-Gold Project
Cooper Metals Ltd (ASX:CPM) has identified several electromagnetic conductors potentially favourable for iron-sulphide copper-gold (ISCG) mineralisation in its maiden airborne electromagnetic survey over the Mt Isa East Copper-Gold Project in Queensland.
The one for good luck
American Rare Earths subsidiary part of consortium to receive $A5.5 million in research funding to develop REE processing technology
American Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:ARR) US-based subsidiary Western Rare Earths is the sole industry member invited to a research and development consortium led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).