The local market has not just sustained the break above 5,800 that we spoke of last week, but added a further 110 points to an intra-day high yesterday, before retreating slightly in afternoon trading.

There does seem to be a bid under this market, and this is something we expect to continue as we outlined in the most recent monthly commentary. We also got an update on the strength of the Australian labour market this week, with solid if not spectacular growth. We prefer to look at 12 month aggregate data when it comes to jobs, and on that score we are now at a decade high, with our economy having added 372,000 jobs over the last 12 months, almost all of which were full time positions.

There are anecdotal reports of wage inflation starting to be observed in the construction industry, and given the strong jobs data we continue to expect that trend will flow through in time to the rest of the economy.

If you would like to know more get in contact with Forwood Planning