ASX set for flat start; ANZ trading update; $A jumps

US stocks felt both the upside and downside of a surprisingly strong report that said the nation’s unemployment rate improved last month.

After initially rising toward an all-time high, the S&P 500 flipped between gains and losses before finishing with a minuscule dip of less than 0.1 per cent. The Dow Jones dropped 66 points, or 0.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2 per cent. Both also erased early gains.

The Australian sharemarket is set for a flat start to the session, with futures at 4.57am AEDT pointing to a dip of 2 points at the open. The ASX jumped 1.7 per cent on Wednesday. The Australian dollar bounced and is fetching US71.26¢ at 8.19am AEDT.

Reporting season continues, with AMP, Origin Energy, and Temple & Webster among those due up.

ANZ Bank revealed in a trading update it made $1.9 billion in profits in the December quarter, as its expenses fell as a result of deep cost-cutting under new chief executive Nuno Matos, while its profit margins also moved higher.

Compared with the same quarter last year, ANZ’s profits rose 6 per cent.

Elsewhere, Treasury yields remained higher in the bond market after the Labor Department said US employers added 130,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, more than economists expected. That helped calm worries from a day earlier, when a discouraging report suggested spending by US households, the main engine of the economy, may be stalling.

On one hand, the strong data on jobs raises hopes that the US economy can remain solid and keep driving big profits for companies. Stocks in the energy and raw-material industries jumped to some of the bigger gains in the S&P 500, for example, and their profits tend to be closely tied to the health of the economy.

Exxon Mobil climbed 2.6 per cent. Smurfit Westrock jumped 9.9 per cent even though the packaging company reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It gave financial targets for the next five years that some analysts found encouraging.

But on the other hand for the broad stock market, the stronger-than-expected jobs data could also keep the Federal Reserve on hold when it comes to cuts to interest rates. And higher rates can drag on prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.

After Wednesday’s report showed the tick down for the US unemployment rate, traders pushed back their bets for when the Fed could begin cutting interest rates again, according to data from CME Group. The bets slid further into the summer, after a new Fed chair is set to take the helm.

If Wednesday’s jobs report had shown a rise in the unemployment rate or other worsening for the job market, that could have pushed the Fed to resume its cuts more quickly.

Lower rates would give the economy and financial markets a boost, though at the cost of potentially worsening inflation. The next monthly update on inflation at the US consumer level is arriving on Friday, and it will likely be another big influence on the Fed’s plans.

After the jobs report, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.17 per cent from 4.16 per cent late on Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more closely with expectations for Fed moves, climbed more. It rose to 3.51 per cent from 3.45 per cent.

To be sure, all is still not perfectly clear for the US economy. Wednesday’s report included major revisions, which said employers added just 181,000 jobs for all of last year. That’s less than a third of the previously reported 584,000, and it’s the weakest showing for a year since 2020, when COVID-19 shut down the economy.

The overall jobs report nevertheless looked to be an encouraging signal for the economy.

“We all knew there would be downward revisions, but these were better than expected,” Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management, said of the markdowns for 2025.

On Wall Street, Robinhood Markets fell 8.8 per cent even though the trading and investment app reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its revenue fell short of forecasts, and analysts highlighted Robinhood’s forecast for expenses in 2026, along with concerns about how long a slowdown in crypto trading will last.

Crypto prices have plunged recently, and bitcoin’s price fell toward $US67,000 Wednesday. It’s lost close to half its value since setting a record in October.

Moderna dropped 3.5 per cent after saying the US Food and Drug Administration is refusing to consider its application for a new flu vaccine made with Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology. It’s the latest sign of the FDA’s heightened scrutiny of vaccines under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kraft Heinz recovered from an early loss and added 0.4 per cent after CEO Steve Cahillane said he’s pausing the company’s planned split into two businesses as he tries to return it to profitable growth. He also announced a $600 million investment across marketing, sales and research and development.

All told, the S&P 500 edged down by 0.34 to 6,941.47 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 66.74 to 50,121.40, and the Nasdaq composite fell 36.01 to 23,066.47.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following a better showing in Asia.

The United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 gained 1.1 per cent, and South Korea’s Kospi rose 1 per cent for two of the bigger moves.

AP

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