Afternoon Report | ASX slumps on strong jobs growth

This is the Fear and Greed Afternoon Report - everything you need to know about what happened in the markets, economy and world of business today, in just a few minutes.

1. ASX slumps on strong jobs growth

2. Libs formally dump net zero

3. Corporate movers

4. Rio Tinto dumps mine plans
5. Trump under pressure over new Epstein emails

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report
for Thursday, the thirteenth of November. I'm Michael Thompson, and
every afternoon we have the five big stories that you
need to know about. Today, let's get cracking with story
number one. The S and PA is Sex two hundred
fell zero point five percent today to eighty seven hundred
and fifty three points. It wasn't going too badly until
the labor force figures were published late this morning. Australia

(00:26):
added forty two thousand, two hundred jobs last month, taking
the unemployment rate down to four point three percent it
was previously four point five percent. Further dowsing hopes of
an interest rate cut next year at the ASEX two
hundred tumbled as much as one percent on the back
of the data, before gaining a bit of ground through
the rest of the day to close half a percent down.

(00:47):
The worst performance today were the Techdocs Cloud of Counting
Group zero dropped nine percent after its operating expenses ratio
came in above expectations. Next DC was down four percent,
Wisetech Global off my two percent. Taking a look at
the banks, A and Z went ex dividend today, so
if you own shares before that point you get the dividend.
Afterwards you don't. As a result, it was down almost

(01:09):
five percent today. NAB and Westpac both fell around one percent,
but Commonwealth Bank bucked the trend, climbing one point one
percent after some big sell offs in recent days. Another
good day for the gold miners, the gold price around
forty two one hundred US dollars an ounce. Neumont was
up nearly four percent. The worst performer though today was
Drone Shield, which has been a bit of a share

(01:31):
market darling this year. Not anymore, it seems. The defense
tech company plummeted thirty one and a half percent today
after chief executive Oleg Vaornik sold nearly fifteen million shares
valued at around fifty million dollars. On to story number two,
and the Liberal Party has formally agreed to abandon its
commitment to net zero emissions by twenty fifty, confirming a

(01:53):
major shift in climate policy. The Liberal Party room had
flagged this yesterday, we spoke about that on the Small Show,
and today a meeting of shadow ministers confirmed it. The
party also resolved to repeal Labour's twenty thirty emissions reduction legislation,
but said it would remain part of the Paris Agreement
and set five year interim targets once they were elected

(02:18):
to government. Oppositionally to Susan Lee said that omissions would
be reduced and I quote as fast and as far
as technologies allow without imposing mandatory costs. National's leader David
Little Proud praised the move as leadership, saying it aligned
closely with the National's position to prioritize energy affordability. The
two coalition parties will now meet on Sunday to finalize

(02:41):
their joint policy. Story number three bit of corporate news
around today, Guzmani Gomez said it had maintained its earnings
guidance and expects strong sales growth this financial year through
menu innovation, operational excellence, marketing and digital initiatives. Goosman's share
price fell almost two percent today. It's down forty percent

(03:01):
over the past year. Grain Corp tumbled almost eleven percent
today after reporting a thirty five percent drop in net
profit for the twenty twenty five fiscal year. Softer international
grain margins are offsetting some strong local volumes. Ourica rallied
two and a half percent after posting its strongest earnings
in thirteen years, with full year net profit up thirty

(03:22):
two percent. Webjet Group fell more than seventeen percent after
downgrading its full year profit outlook, and the A Triple
C has provided informal clearance for the proposed merger between
Southern Cross Media and Seven West Media. Story number four.
Rio Tinto has dumped a twenty one year old ambition
to develop a lithium mine in Serbia, with the da

(03:46):
project falling victim to the miner's cost cutting program that's
already cut hundreds of jobs from Rio's Australian iron ore division.
The lithium and borates deposit in the Dar Valley was
discovered by Rio in two thousand and four. In twenty
twenty one, the company promised to spend two point four
billion US dollars building Europe's biggest lithium mind if all

(04:08):
permits were forthcoming from the Serbian government, but Rio temporarily
lost its license for the project between January twenty twenty
two and July twenty twenty four continues to battle community
opposition and political uncertainty towards the project. This is according
to the Financial Review. Also, Rio has spent what is
it more than ten billion dollars buying arcadium Lithium's established

(04:32):
and revenue generating business earlier this year, as well as
some earlier stage Chilean lithium assets. The big challenge here
is the competition for capital is rising within Rio's lithium division.
As a result, YadA has been put onto the back burner.
Last one story number five. Newly released emails suggest Donald
Trump knew about the conduct of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

(04:56):
The messages made public by Democrats on the House Oversight
Committee include one in which Epstein allegedly said, of course
Trump knew about the girls, and another claiming that Trump
spent hours with a victim at Epstein's home. The emails
have renewed pressure on the White House to release the
full Epstein files. Republicans responded by releasing twenty three thousand

(05:18):
of their own documents, accusing the Democrats of cherry picking
the material. For his part, Trump dismissed the reports as
a hoax on truth social saying Democrats were trying to
distract from the government's shutdown. Speaking of the government shutdown,
legislation to end it was passed today by Congress. The
final stage now in the process is for Donald Trump

(05:39):
to sign the bill. That's it for the Afternoon Report
for Thursday, the thirteenth of November. Make sure you hit
follow on the podcast and head along to Fear and
Greed dot com dot au or click the link in
the show notes to sign up for our free daily
newsletter in your inbox by six am every weekday. Great
cheat sheet to help you get ahead. I'm Michael Thompson.
Enjoy your evening.