Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures down 0.3% to 7,281.00
- Dow Average up 0.2% to 35,176.15
- Aussie down 0.2% to 0.6516 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield rose 9.4bps to 4.1055%
- Australia 3-year bond yield rose 4.4 bps to 3.77%
- Australia 10-year bond yield rose 5 bps to 4.05%
- Gold spot down 0.1% to $1,912.43
- Brent futures down 1.3% to $86.39/bbl
Economic Events
- 09:30: (AU) RBA’s Lowe – Testimony
Stocks struggled for direction amid bets that even if the Federal Reserve pauses its rate hikes in September, policy will remain tight to prevent a flare-up in inflation. Treasuries fell.
A renewed jump in longer-term US yields weighed on sentiment after a weak 30-year bond auction. Wall Street’s risk-on bid also faded as Fed Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly told Yahoo! Finance the central bank still has “more work to do.” That’s even after data showed the core consumer price index had the smallest back-to-back increase in more than two years.
Treasury 30-year yields climbed after a $23 billion auction was awarded the highest rate since 2011. Two-year yields, which are more sensitive to imminent Fed moves, reversed an earlier slide. Benchmark 10-year yields rose about 10 basis points to 4.1%. The dollar gained. Oil’s rally, driven by increasing signs of a tightening market, paused as technical barriers stalled further advances.
Other News
New Zealand will require businesses with more than 250 employees to report their gender pay gaps in order to encourage greater equity in the workplace.
Around 900 companies will be subject to the reporting once legislation is in place, Minister for Women Jan Tinetti said Friday in Wellington. It is envisaged that the requirement will eventually be extended to those that employ more than 100 workers, encompassing around 2,700 firms.
“The reality is that women have different experiences in the workplace than men, and change is needed,” Tinetti said. “Requiring companies to publish their gender pay gap will encourage them to address the drivers of those gaps and increase transparency for workers.”
New Zealand has made progress within its public service in reducing the gender pay gap to a record-low 7.7%, with women holding more than half of the roles in the top tiers of senior management. While around 200 private companies including Air New Zealand and Spark voluntarily report or plan to, the gap across the entire economy has stagnated for several years. It stood at 9.2% in 2022.
“This move is part of the government’s ongoing commitment to make New Zealand an equitable and desirable place for people to live, work, and do business,” Tinetti said.
Nations such as Australia, Canada and the UK have gender pay gap reporting in place, and New Zealand needs to keep pace with international standard to attract highly skilled women to its workforce, she said.
The government will consult widely before preparing the necessary legislation. It will seek feedback on whether to include ethnicity in pay gap reporting.
(Bloomberg)
