The ASX was higher today, lifted by energy and materials backed by higher commodity prices.
The S&P/ASX200 benchmark gained 24.40 points or 0.37% to 6,646.00. Over the last five days, the index is virtually unchanged, but is down 10.73% for the last year to date.
Top-performing stocks in this index for the day were EML Payments Ltd up 11.76% and Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU, OTC:IUGNF) up 9.78%.
In the news today
Unemployment falls but perilous headwinds lay ahead
Unemployment fell to 3.5% in June, with data to be watched closely as fears of a slowdown grow.
The skills shortage is also getting worse.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said, “Businesses are facing enormous pressures to recruit and retain local workers, but the reality is they’re running out of options.
“We are now heading into uncharted waters. A failure to act on Australia’s labour and skills crisis threatens to hold back our economic recovery."
McKellar said Australian businesses needed to increase female participation to address the growing issues.
“As a matter of urgency, we must reduce the barriers for people who want to work, ramp up low levels of permanent and temporary skilled migration, and drive investment in training to help abate the chronic workforce shortages across the economy.”
CreditorWatch chief economist Anneke Thomson pointed to positive numbers, but rising headwinds.
“While today’s ABS Labour Force figures are very positive for employees, headwinds still abound in the economy.
"A strong increase in youth employment – 23,000 people or around a 1.1% increase – accounted for almost a quarter of the increase in employment. This indicates that young people may be starting to see the effects of the lack of COVID support payments, coupled with higher costs of living and are therefore increasing their employment activity in a strong job market.
“With the employment rate dropping to 3.5%, this is the lowest rate recorded since 1974. What this means though is that higher inflation will be with us for some time yet and it will put upward pressure on interest rates for the foreseeable future.
"The very high levels of employment reflect businesses' capacity utilisation levels, which according to NAB are at 84.8%. This level has been fairly consistent for months now, and correlates strongly with the unemployment rate. It is likely we won’t see any negative movement in unemployment until capacity utilisation starts to decline.
“CreditorWatch’s B2B Trade Receivables data, as revealed in its latest Business Risk Index, noticeably declined in June 2022. This comes after a steady few months of increases, indicating that businesses may have reached the peak of capacity utilisation.
"NAB June 2022 forward orders also declined slightly, mirroring CreditorWatch data which suggests business confidence is noticeably dropping off, particularly in the Retail Trade sector. This may be the first industry that starts to pull back on hiring when consumers slow their spending behaviour.
"We also expect that the slowdown in housing market activity will impact businesses reliant on transactions in this sector, such as mortgage brokers, conveyancers and credit providers.”
The numbers:
- Unemployment rate decreased to 3.5%.
- Participation rate increased to 66.8%.
- Employment increased to 13,599,300.
- Employment to population ratio increased to 64.4%.
- Underemployment rate increased to 6.1%.
- Monthly hours worked fell less than 0.1% to 1,856 million.
Here’s a look at five of today’s top small cap stories.
American Rare Earths shares higher after results confirm “enormous” size, scale and consistent grades
American Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:ARR) MD and CEO Chris Gibbs said: “These results further enhance our belief that the Halleck Creek Project could be one of the largest, rare earth deposits in North America.”
Triangle Energy's Cliff Head JV project loads first oil on tanker bound for Singapore along new export route
A new export route for Triangle Energy (Global) Ltd utilising the Port of Geraldton will enable the continuation of oil production in the Perth Basin for both the Cliff Head Oil Field and other Perth Basin producers.
Technology Metals to kick off feasibility study to supply vanadium electrolyte for Australian batteries
A proposed plant to produce vanadium electrolyte for vanadium redox flow batteries will utilise Technology Metals Australia Ltd (ASX:TMT)’s high-grade feedstock from its Murchison Technology Metals Project in Western Australia.
Compumedics delivers record sales orders of $45.6 million for FY22
Compumedics Ltd (ASX:CMP) has delivered record new sales orders of $45.6 million for financial year 2022, growing its sales by 29% from $35.3 million from the previous financial year.
Stellar Resources enhances gold potential in Northeast Tasmania through soil sampling
Stellar Resources Ltd (ASX:SRZ) has returned anomalous gold soil results from the Leura and Back Creek prospects in a historic mining area.
On your six
It seems heatwaves have an effect on Bitcoin mining.
Texas Bitcoin mining blackout causes drop in network security
A brutal heatwave bearing down on Texas has caused the majority of Bitcoin mining farms across the state to voluntarily power down their servers to alleviate grid pressure.
The one for good luck
White Rock Minerals preparing to become gold producer in Q3 as work continues at Morning Star
White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM, OTCQX:WRMCF) CEO Matt Gill joined Steve Darling from Proactive to share news the company remains on track with pre-production development underground at the Morning Star Gold Mine in Victoria.