Soft wages – The Aussie dollar fell and bond prices rallied after lower than expected wage data slowed investor expectations for large interest rate increases. Wage growth is a key component of the RBA’s inflation assessment, seeing a 0.7% increase in March, missing forecasts of 0.8%

Jobless rate – Full time employment jumped more than 90,000 in April, causing the jobless rate to fall to a 48 year low of 3.9%. The fall however has caused businesses to demand better access to foreign workers to fix the skills shortage that threatens Australia’s post covid recovery.

Shares plummet – It has been another week of loses, particularly in the US. The Dow Jones Index gave up more than 1000 points on Wednesday, with the NASDAQ and S&P both also losing over 4%. Target was one of the worst hit, losing more than 25% of its value.

Tesla – Tesla has been removed from the S&P 500 ESG benchmark despite a business model centred on developing eco friendly technology. The move has been slammed as ridiculous and “whacktivism”. Many of the worlds largest ESG-focused funds still hold significant amount of Tesla’s stock.

Micro investing – The number of Australians using micro investing apps has doubled to 1.8million over the year to March with the majority being under 40. That number is expected to grow to between 5 and 10 million Australians in the coming years. The growth suggests the arrival of a new generation of investors.

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