The Australian sharemarket edged down on Thursday after a lacklustre session on Wall Street overnight. Energy and mining stocks declined.
The S&P/ASX 200 slipped 18.9 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 7,218.30 about midday, with investors flocking towards safety on the last day of trading before Easter as recessionary fears sparked by indications of a slowdown in the US economy stoked uncertainty.Healthcare companies , utilities and consumer staples bolstered the index as electricity generator Meridian Energy , biotech company CSL and supermarket giant Woolworths all climbed.
Meanwhile, stocks on Wall Street mostly slipped overnight following the latest signals that the US economy is slowing under the weight of much higher interest rates. “Our March payroll data is one of several signals that the economy is slowing,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. “Employers are pulling back from a year of strong hiring and pay growth, after a three-month plateau, is inching down.”
If the job market really is slowing from the strong growth that’s helped to prop up the larger economy recently, it could offer the Fed reason to pause on its hikes to interest rates.
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