Unemployment spikes and Aussie dollar takes a dive with prospect of rate cut

Stocks soared after today’s worse-than-expected jobs numbers.

Transcript

00:00It's probably just a little too early to declare our jobs market is weakening, but

00:07it sure looks that way.

00:08So when the numbers dropped this morning, there was plenty of tut-tutting and I told

00:12you so's amongst commentators, most of whom are still smarting about the Reserve Bank's

00:17shock decision last week to keep rates on hold.

00:20No one expected today's spike in the unemployment rate, so stocks soared and the dollar took

00:25a dive at the prospect of an imminent rate cut.

00:29The currency has dropped a full cent against the greenback in just the past week alone.

00:33It also took a dive against most other currencies today.

00:37The bad jobs news sent investors' hearts soaring.

00:40Anything that leads to a rate cut is always welcome.

00:43The banks powered the market today to within a whisker of a new record.

00:48Global stocks were mostly buoyant and while gold was down, commodities were generally stronger.

00:53Despite the calm exterior, there are rumblings on global money markets.

00:58Donald Trump's continued attacks against US Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell and the

01:04President's big spending budget plans have debt traders in a tizz.

01:09America has a $36 trillion debt burden, which is about to get much bigger.

01:14The real problem is that debt is growing a lot quicker than the economy, whereas Japan, Greece

01:21and Italy are all shrinking their debts relative to their growth.

01:25Then there's the interest bill.

01:27That's now soared to more than a trillion dollars a year, even more than the US spends on defence.

01:33So if the President can rid himself of Powell, he can force rates lower and create the illusion

01:39that everything's just fine.

01:41And that's finance.

01:42And that's how it's doing.

01:43Let's work with this.

01:45So I'm fighting with this.

01:48When I'm fighting with this this program, you know, it's going to be a bit desperate,

01:51it's going to be a bit optimistic.

01:51And here's where he's at the deadline.

01:53So we're going to see so many people as well as the innovation.

01:57So we're going to see some more time.

01:59And here's the idea that we're going to be able to improve our ore Columbia Institute.

02:02If we've got many questions, we're going to be able to drop our store there,

02:06so we're going to be able to open and touch it.