That's it for another day on the blog. Thanks for your company.
A special shout-out to Showa for pointing out the Japanese market was closed today — my bad.
But fear not, the peerless Emilia Terzon will be in the hot seat tomorrow for another action-packed day.
Until then, I'll slip back out of here.
Prices current around 4:20pm AEDT
Live updates on major ASX indices:
The ASX was hit by a broad market sell-off triggered by Wall Street's slump on Friday
The ASX 200 closed down 1.2% to 8,192points.
The wave of selling was evident across the region, with Korea's Kopsi (-1.1%), Hong Kong's Hang Seng (-1.4%) and Shanghai (-0.5%) all down in afternoon trade.
There appears to be little respite in sight, with futures trading pointing to the S&P 500 shedding another 0.5% when Wall Street opens tonight.
Amid today's selling, only the energy and utility sectors have made ground.
The energy sector has been buoyed by a 4% spike in oil prices after the US said it would toughen sanctions against players in the Russian oil production and distribution pipeline.
Brent crude oil is trading above $US80/barrel for the first time since October.
All the key oil and gas producers have enjoyed a solid start to the week, while uranium producers are also helping to lift the energy sector.
The big miners had a mixed day despite higher iron ore and base metal prices on Friday. BHP and Rio Tinto slipped, while Fortescue and Mineral Resources gained.
The banks and insurers were all hammered, with Westpac down 2.2% and Macquarie down 2.4%
The big winner on the ASX 200 today was Star Entertainment up 13.6%, proof of that old adage that every dog has its day.
That being said, Star is down around 40% since the start of the year and, with a market cap of just $315 million, its days on the ASX 200 appear to be limited.
Retailer Premier Investment was the big loser, down 15.1%, after announcing flat trading in the first half. Its soon-to-be merger partner Myer, which lurks well outside the top 200, fell 22% on poor second-half results as well
The resources sector construction outfit NRW Holdings fell 9.7% after announcing the resignation of its chief financial officer this morning.
Not that this blog means to alarm, but we just noticed there is a bit of a spike in the Melbourne Institute's monthly inflation gauge released today.
The gauge reported a 0.6% jump in headline inflation in December, and the trimmed median inflation came in 0.4% higher over the month.
These are, of course, not official figures. However, if that's the way inflation plays out, it wouldn't be great for any immediate interest rate relief.
The official fourth quarter ABS inflation figures — the ones the RBA and mortgage holders will be sweating on — will be released on Wednesday, January 29.
In a result unlikely to go unnoticed by the incoming Trump administration, China has just posted a big jump in exports, boosting its monthly trade surplus to $US105 billion.
Chinese exports in December jumped by 10.7%, beating the consensus forecast of 7.6% and November's 6.7% increase.
Imports were also surprisingly strong, up 1% showing domestic demand was on the improve.
The overall result saw the monthly surplus balloon 7.6% from the $US97.4 billion reported in November.
The Chinese economy has been responding to government stimulus in recent months and is poised to deliver the official target of 5% GDP growth in 2024 when the National Bureau of Statistics releases the data next Friday.
However, the future of China's renewed export boom remains cloudy with US president-elect Donald Trump proposing hefty tariffs on Chinese goods, sparking fears of a renewed trade war between the two economic superpowers.
Just a couple of weeks before shareholders are due to vote on Myer's purchase of Premier Investments apparel labels, both companies have been delivered a sobering message about the state of their businesses.
Both Myer and Premier put out half-year financial updates ahead of the vote on January 23, both contained a similar message about flat conditions, and both were hammered for their trouble.
At 2:15pm AEDT Myer had tumbled 22% and Premier was down 15% with many investors electing to bail out rather than stick around for the merger vote.
Myer (market cap: $960 million) plans to merge with the apparel brands of the Solomon Lew controlled Premier (market cap: $5.3 billion) in what it describes as "transformative deal" for the struggling department store chain.
The merger/scrip acquisition would see Myer own the likes of the Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Portmans, Jacqui E and Dotti brands with aspirations to boost Myer's revenue to around $4 billion.
Premier will end up owning more than half Myer's shares and in effective control of the company.
Myer reported total sales of $1.6 billion for the 22 weeks to 28 December which was 0.8 per cent lower than the previous corresponding period.
Earnings before interest and tax were worse, down $16 million or 25 per cent, to about $48 million.
Premier said its half-year performance was flat with total global sales of between $855 million to $865 million compared to a year ago.
Both Myer and Premier insisted "challenging" retail conditions led to the uninspiring outcomes.
"In challenging trading conditions for the retail sector driven by a tough macroeconomic environment, Myer's year-to-date sales have been stable," Myer's executive chair Olivia Wirth said.
"Trading during last year's key sales events including Black Friday was strong, but consumers remain cautious and focused on value given persistent cost-of-living pressures," Ms Wirth said.
J.P. Morgan's retail analyst Bryan Raymond was unimpressed.
"Myer continues to call out challenging macroeconomic conditions as well as an elevated cost base, reflecting its flat YoY comp sales despite Black Friday sales growth across most retailers stepping up this year," Mr Raymond wrote in a note to clients.
The PM has promised more than 620,000 new fibre connections to the National Broadband Network, with more than half to be rolled out in rural and regional areas.
That's the centrepiece of a $3 billion NBN upgrade the government says will "finish" the project by 2030.
Jake Evans from our Parliament House filed this story earlier.
Prices current around 12:45pm AEDT
Live updates on major ASX indices:
The ASX has been hit by a broad market sell off triggered by Wall Street's slump on Friday
At 12:45pm AEDT, the ASX 200 was down 1.5% to 8,170points.
The wave of selling is evident across the region with Japan's Nikkei (-1.1%), Hong Kong's Hang Seng (-1.2%) and Shanghai (-0.5%) all opening lower.
Amid the selling, only the energy and utility sectors have made ground.
The energy sector has been buoyed by a 4% spike in oil prices after the US said it would toughen sanctions against players in the Russian oil production and distribution pipeline.
Brent crude oil this morning was trading above $US80/barrel for the first time since early October.
All the key oil and gas producers have enjoyed a solid start to the week, while uranium producers are also helping to lift the energy sector.
The big miners have also been in demand after iron ore and base metal prices rose on Friday.
The banks and insurers have all been hammered with Westpac down 2.3%.
The big winners this morning are oil and gas producer (+3.6%) and Woodside (2.3%), while Star Entertainment is proof that every dog has its day up 2.3%.
That being said it is down around 40% since the start of the year and with a market cap of just $315 million its days on the ASX 200 appear to be limited.
Insignia Wealth is up 2.2% to $4.241after Bain Capital said it would match CC Capital's takeover bid of $4.30.
Retailer Premier Investment is the big loser, down 15.1%, after announcing flat trading in the first half.
The resources sector construction outfit, NRW Holdings is down 9.3% after announcing the resignation of its chief financial officer this morning.
Job ads edged up last month, pointing to ongoing resilience in the labour market.
The ANZ-Indeed survey increased 0.3% over the month, with the series up 0.5% over the quarter.
While the quarterly rise was modest, it represents a turnaround from the 13.8% decline over the first three quarters of last year.
ANZ economist Madeline Dunk said the stabilisation in the series coincided with other data signalling resilience in the labour market.
"Australian Bureau of Statistics job vacancies figures grew 4.2% q/q in the November quarter, the first rise since May 2022," Ms Dunk noted.
"The unemployment rate fell 0.2ppt to 3.9% in November and the underemployment rate dropped to a 19-month low of 6.1%."
The on-going strength in the labour market is also reflected in the 110,000 new jobs created in the past three months.
The ABS will release the December labour force figures on Thursday.