This morning, Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe said the economy was doing “very well” and that interest rates were likely to continue climbing, although he signalled the RBA was looking closely at whether it could continue with large increases such as the four consecutive 0.5 percentage point rises. The news comes as Thursday’s slight rise in unemployment rates sparked speculation of a cooling economy.

The comments came as the trading day began on a negative front, dropping 0.8 per cent. Financial stocks lifted modestly in early trading, up 0.3 per cent, with all big four banks rising.

But the sector fell soon after, and closed at 0.78 per cent. All big four banks dropped, par NAB, which managed to close up half a per cent.

Meanwhile, stock transfer company Computershare’s 4.42 per cent rise helped keep tech stocks from falling too drastically, despite poor performance on the NASDAQ overnight.

In other news, the country’s largest online stockbroker, CommSec, reported a slide in profits after last year’s bottom line was boosted by an asset sale, as it also made less in brokerage revenue.

CommSec, which is owned by the Commonwealth Bank, said in accounts filed with the corporate watchdog that profits for the year to June were $198.6 million, down from $305.2 million a year earlier.

CommSec said the lower profits were due to softer brokerage revenue and dividend income, after its 2021 profits had received a lift from an $85 million dividend from an asset sale.

While share-trading by retail investors boomed during the earlier phases of the COVID-19 pandemic amid lockdowns and ultra-low interest rates, brokers say conditions have slowed this year as market conditions have softened.

Over in the US, stocks gave up more ground on Thursday, leaving major indexes on Wall Street deeper in the red for the week.

The S&P 500 fell 1.1 per cent after another wobbly day of trading. The benchmark index is now down 4.1 per cent for the week following the biggest pullback for the market in more than two years on Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6 per cent and the Nasdaq composite slid 1.4 per cent. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies closed 0.7 per cent lower.

Tweet of the day:

Quote of the day:

“The fact that we’ve raised rates quite a lot already increases the strength of the argument for smaller increases going forward,” Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe said on Friday.

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You may have missed: Ride-share app Uber announced on Thursday that it’s investigating a cybersecurity incident, after reports that the company shut down several internal systems following a privacy breach.

AP

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