ASX subdued as jobs data rattles markets

Here's what's happening in finance markets this morning. Source: Getty (Florent Rols via Getty Images)

Good morning.

Here's everything you need to know about finance markets for today.

ASX: The Australian share market looks set for a subdued day on Thursday. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 3 points higher this morning.

Wall Street: On Wall Street, the Dow Jones fell 0.5 per cent, the S&P 500 dropped 0.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq edged slightly lower.

AUD: The Australian dollar is trading at 0.7725 to the US dollar as at 7.30am this morning.

Oil: It could be a difficult day of trade for energy producers after oil prices sank. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price is down 3.2 per cent to US$63.43 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price has fallen 2.9 per cent to US$66.69 a barrel. Oil prices came under pressure amid rising COVID-19 cases in Asia and inflation fears.

Gold: Gold miners could be on the rise today after the gold price edged higher overnight. According to CNBC, the spot gold price is up 0.2 per cent to US$1,871.00 an ounce. The gold price rose after stocks slipped on inflation fears.

Crypto: Coinbase suffered an hours-long outage on May 19th that hindered transactions on the exchange. The company had pinpointed the main issue and was rolling out a fix as of this writing, but it also noted a separate problem with delayed Etherium and ERC-20 withdrawals due to "network congestion".

Private health: The private health industry is in a death spiral and needs an urgent rescue plan that includes reining in "greedy surgeons" who charge exorbitant fees, a public policy think tank says. In a report on the industry the Grattan Institute says the federal government and industry leaders need to join together and forge such a plan.

Emissions: The Australian National University is the first tertiary institution in the nation to commit to reducing greenhouse emissions to below zero by 2030. It is only the second university in the world, and the first of its size, to set the target.

Jobs: Economists have a broad range of expectations for the latest jobs figures, due to the uncertainty over what impact the end of the JobKeeper wage subsidy may have had. The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the labour force report for April on Thursday.

Mental health: Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas is expected to spend billions of dollars rebuilding the state's mental health system in his seventh budget. The 2021/22 budget, to be unveiled on Thursday, is expected to act on the recommendations of the mental health royal commission, which released its final report in March this year.

Investing: Savings, EFTs, cryptocurrency: Here's an explainer of a few different types of investments to get your investment journey started and the platforms you can use.

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