ASX200: Futures Point Northwards with No Major Stats to Consider Today

It was a 4^th consecutive day in the red for the ASX200 on Thursday.

Following a 0.14% decline on Wednesday, the ASX200 fell by 0.57% to end the day at 7,381.95.

Inflation figures from the U.S weighed ahead of disappointing Australian employment figures for October.

Adding to the downside was talk of the U.S administration looking at ways to cut energy costs to ease inflationary pressures.

Sliding oil prices and tech stocks weighed heavily on the day.

The Stats

According to ABS,

• The unemployment rate increased to 5.2% from 4.8% in October.
• Employment fell by 46.3k to leave it 160.3k lower than in March 2020.
• Full-time employment declined by 40.4k, with part-time employment down 5.9k.
• The participation rate increased by 0.1 pts to 64.7%.

U.S Inflation from Wednesday

Consumer prices rose by 0.9% in October following a 0.4% increase in September.

More significantly, the core annual rate of inflation accelerated from 4.0% to 4.6. Economists had forecast an annual core inflation rate of 4.3%.

Month-on-month, core consumer prices increased by 0.6% following a 0.2% rise in the month prior.

The Market Movers

It was a mixed day for the banks. NAB and CBA slid by 1.63% and by 1.60% respectively, with Macquarie Group falling by 0.73%. ANZ and Westpac saw relatively modest losses of 0.18% and 0.13% respectively.

Commodity stocks had a bullish session. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd surged by 8.19%, with Newcrest Mining rallying by 2.39%.

BHP Group and Rio Tinto ended the up by 2.57% and by 1.86% respectively.

Notable others on the day included Xero Ltd., which slid by 6.22% and Novonix Ltd, which led the way, rallying by 10.53%.

Other Asian Markets

Elsewhere, it was a bullish session. The CSI300 and the Hang Seng Index rallied by 1.61% and by 1.01% respectively, with the Nikkei 225 ending the day up 0.59%.

The Day Ahead

It’s a particularly quiet day ahead on the Asian economic calendar. There are no material stats due out of Australia or China to provide direction.

The lack of stats will leave the ASX200 to take its cues from the U.S futures and commodity prices. Corporate earnings will need continued monitoring, however.

The Futures

In the futures markets, at the time of writing, the ASX200 was up by 32 points.

For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar.