The
Australian September Labour Market report showed a disappointing
result on jobs created for the month but a drop in the unemployment
rate from 3.7% in August to 3.6% (lower participation the key to
this). Full-time jobs fell by nearly 40 thousand, while part-time
increased by 46.5 thousand. Hours worked fell, but so did
underemployment and underutilisation. Full-time jobs are sharply
lower from June, but still up on the year. It does seem clear,
however, that the post-lock downs full-time hiring surge is
over. Given the low jobless rate its difficult to argue that the
labour
market is
weak.
Indeed
at 3.6% unemployment, the Reserve Bank of Australia is going to
continue to assess the labour market as tight. Anecdotal comments
from employers support this take. But, I think its fair to call this
report, at least, mixed.
AUD/USD
dribbled lower on the day. NZD/USD followed suit as did CAD (USD/CAD
higher) and GBP/USD to a lesser extent. Ranges have not been large
with many in the timezone content to wait it out until Federal
Reserve Chair Powell speaks later today (at midday US Eastern time).
Also
on the data front, Japanese exports jumped
in
September. Japan’s Ministry of Finance noted that exports recorded
the largest value ever. A weak yen obviously played a role in this.
ps.
Check out the post on former Bank of Japan policy board member
Sakurai offering up his opinion that the BOJ may scrap negative
interest rates by the end of this year. This was not breaking news
(opinion), but is worth tasking note of.
We
had Chinese house price data for September.
New home prices fell m/m and y/y. Again. I did notice that Chinese
media painted a brighter picture, teasing out the data to read that
the sales
price of second-hand homes in first-tier Chinese cities increased for
the first time in September, up 0.2% month-on-month, after falling
for four consecutive months. A
tentative green shoot for the property sector, and a welcome one.
Asian
equity markets fell, taking a cue from the big drops on Wall Street:
-
Japan’s Nikkei 225 -1.9%
-
China’s Shanghai Composite -1%
-
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng -1.9%
-
South Korea’s KOSPI -1.9%
-
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 -1.6%