The ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is currently down 1.6% with the miners leading the ASX lower.
ASX miners are falling
ASX miners are falling in some of the hardest falls within the ASX blue chips.
The Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG) share price is down 3.5%, the Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) share price is down 1.4% and the BHP (ASX: BHP) share price is down 0.90%.
Australian job numbers plunge
According to reporting of the ABS numbers by the Australian Financial Review, the Australian unemployment rate rose to 7.1% in May 2020, up from 6.2% in April 2020. This is the highest jobless rate since October 2001.
There were 227,700 jobs lost in May after 607,400 jobs lost in April. Economists were only expecting job losses of 78,800 and the unemployment rate was expected to be 6.9%.
Looking at the split between full-timers and part-timers, full-time employment decreased by 89,100 to 8.54 million people and part-time employment decreased by 138,600 to 3.6 million people.
Qantas (ASX: QAN) cancels international flights to October
According to reporting by the Australian Financial Review, Qantas’ decision was due to Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham stating that Australia’s border for overseas travel likely wouldn’t open until next year.
In a statement, Qantas said: “With Australia’s borders set to remain closed for some time, we have cancelled most international flights until late October. We still have some flights scheduled across the Tasman in the coming months, with the expected travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand. Should travel between Australia and other countries open up and demand returns, we can add more flights back into our schedule.”
The Qantas share price is down 3%.
Westpac (ASX: WBC) sells its Pendal (ASX: PDL)
Westpac has sold down Pendal shares in 2007, 2015 and 2017. It’s now going to sell its remaining Pendal shares.
The major bank has announced a fully-underwritten offer of the approximately 31 million shares, which is around 9.5% of Pendal, to institutional investors.
The offer price for the shares has been set at $5.98 per share, which is a discount of 4% to Pendal’s last closing price of $6.23 on 17 June 2020 and a 5.1% discount to the 30-day average share price of $6.30.
[ls_content_block id=”695″ para=”paragraphs”]
