Australia’s central bank will sift through fresh jobs numbers ahead of the cash rate call next month.
In the lead-up to that call the Australian share market on Friday closed at its highest level ever after a bigger-than-expected inflation drop in the US firmed bets the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.
In Australia official labour force data has been coming in consistently strong even as higher interest rates slow the economy and other jobs market indicators, such as vacancies and ad numbers, lose momentum.
The June labour force data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, scheduled for Thursday, follows a fall in the unemployment rate in May.
The jobless rate sunk to four per cent from 4.1 per cent, in April, broadly as expected, with 39,700 jobs added to the economy.
After a stronger-than-expected monthly inflation outcome, the possibility of another interest rate hike has resurfaced, though the more likely scenario remains rates staying high for longer.
While the more-comprehensive June quarter inflation statistics – due later this month – will be the most important release on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s radar, the state of the labour market will also inform the August decision on rates.
The central bank has been trying to beat inflation while keeping as many of the post-pandemic gains in the labour market as possible.
Yet a gradual lift in the jobless rate is expected, and so far, the labour market has been behaving broadly as the RBA anticipated.
Other agenda items include quarterly building activity data from the statistics bureau on Wednesday and a panel appearance by the RBA’s head of economic research, John Simon, in Sydney on the same day.
Wall Street stock indexes closed higher on Friday, on bets that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in September, while big banks fell after reporting mixed results.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 31.92 points, or 0.57 per cent, to end at 5,616.46 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 113.58 points, or 0.62 per cent, to 18,396.98. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 260.02 points, or 0.65 per cent, to 40,013.77.
Australian futures rose 51 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 7992.0.
The Australian share market closed at its highest level ever after the bigger-than-expected inflation drop in the US.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index on Friday finished up 69.7 points, or 0.88 per cent, to 7,959.3, while the broader All Ordinaries climbed 72.7 points, or 0.89 per cent, to 8,206.1.
