On the flipside, among the biggest large-cap gainers were Lynas Rare Earths (up 2.1 per cent) and investment firm GQG Partners (up 1.2 per cent).
Miner Yancoal also jumped 3.1 per cent at midday, bolstered by an announcement it will be added to the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index for the first time from September 23. Also joining the index will be Mexican-themed restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez (up 4.9 per cent) after a promising rise following its float in June, and gold miner Westgold Resources (down 2.3 per cent).
The quarterly rebalance of the index will in turn remove property marketplace Domain, Strike Energy and medical device company Nanosonics.
Elsewhere in commodities, Brent crude gained 1.4 per cent to $US72.08/ barrel, spot gold rose 0.05 per cent to $US2498.63/oz, and iron ore fell below $US90/tonne for the first time in 22 months.
On Wall Street on Friday, US stocks fell, weighed down by a nonfarm payroll report that showed a continued labour market slowdown. Traders were left uncertain about how far the Federal Reserve will go in cutting interest rates, while fears remained the bank had waited too long to do so.
Loading
The S&P 500 and the Dow had their biggest weekly drop since March 2023, with the Nasdaq registering its biggest weekly drop since January 2022.
Losses in megacap “Magnificent Seven” stocks dragged the bourse, including Tesla (down 8.4 per cent), Nvidia (down 4 per cent), Google owner Alphabet (down 4 per cent) and Meta (down 3.2 per cent).
The S&P 500 lost 1.7 per cent, the Dow Jones fell 1 per cent and the Nasdaq shed 2.6 per cent.
US Labor Department data showed US employers added 142,000 jobs in August, shy of analyst expectations, while jobs growth for July was revised down to 89,000, also below estimates.
The report means Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell must cut rates later this month, but also suggests he may be too late for the economy to achieve a soft landing, said Lou Basenese, president and chief market strategist at MDB Capital in New York.
“If we start seeing layoffs in the next month or two, it’s going to suggest his timing was too late. Stocks are going to go down until next week when the Fed makes it definitive that they’re cutting, which could put pressure on them to do 50 basis points versus 25 bps. I think 25 bps is all but guaranteed,” Basenese said.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Friday “the time has come” for the US central bank to begin a series of interest rate cuts, adding he is open-minded about the size and pace.
Traders’ bets for a 25-basis point rate cut in September stood at 73 per cent, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, while those for a 50-bps reduction in rates were at 27 per cent, down from a brief rise to 51 per cent after the report.
With Reuters