{"id":119955,"date":"2025-11-05T22:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/119955\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T22:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:00:10","slug":"employment-data-dominates-quiet-day-on-nz-sharemarket-market-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/119955\/","title":{"rendered":"Employment data dominates quiet day on NZ sharemarket \u2013 Market close"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe big news of the day was the unemployment print. It was in line with expectations, but, notwithstanding, unemployment at an eight-year high is not ideal,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rate of youth unemployment is perhaps the biggest concern, especially considering New Zealand\u2019s ongoing brain drain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unemployment rate hit 5.3%<\/a> in the September 2025 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. That is the highest rate since December 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been some positive data this week on housing consents, which is encouraging, although the last few dairy auctions<\/a> have been a bit weak. Consumer confidence and business outlook have also lifted, but from a very low base.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Reserve Bank has a single mandate of price stability, but it will be aware of what the labour market\u2019s doing, of how weak it is and how that rolls into the broader economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the main board, SkyCity Entertainment Group traded in high volume with 8.4 million shares changing hands on turnover worth $6.2m, with its share price lifting 0.68% to 74c.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Fletcher Building handed over the long-awaited landmark New Zealand International Convention Centre to SkyCity.<\/p>\n

Gentailers Meridian Energy, Contact Energy and Mercury Energy all had their share prices fall.<\/p>\n

Meridian was down 2.65% or 16c to $5.87, Contact was down 0.31% or 3c to $9.50 and Mercury was down 0.15% or 1c to $6.58.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Air New Zealand\u2019s share price rose 1.67% or 1c to 61c after 5.8 million shares changed hands on turnover worth $3.5m.<\/p>\n

Infratil also rose late in the session, up 0.81% or 10c to $12.40.<\/p>\n

Tech companies led a sharp sell-off across Asia on Wednesday as investors are increasingly worried about an AI bubble after a rally this year where valuations hit record highs.<\/p>\n

Global markets have soared this year as a flood of cash piled into companies linked to artificial intelligence, including US titans Nvidia, Amazon and Apple as well as Asian firms Samsung and Alibaba.<\/p>\n

But despite strong earnings releases in recent quarters, traders have started questioning the wisdom of chasing ever-higher prices, with cash mostly funnelled into a handful of big-name companies.<\/p>\n

The gains have also been helped by an easing of US trade tensions and expectations the Federal Reserve will continue to cut interest rates into the new year.<\/p>\n

But last week\u2019s warning from the US central bank that another reduction in December was not a foregone conclusion jolted sentiment.<\/p>\n

After an uncertain start to the week on Monday, Wall Street tumbled on Tuesday, with the tech-rich Nasdaq down more than 2% and the S&P 500 off more than 1%.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Additional reporting AFP<\/p>\n

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.<\/p>\n

Listen and subscribe to the Today in Business<\/a> podcast \u2013 the top headlines from the NZ Herald business team summarised and delivered by an AI voice as an easily digestible recap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe big news of the day was the unemployment print. It was in line with expectations, but, notwithstanding,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,9526,138,651,5201,3105,5972,28471,6097,1122,120,34438,225,4486,111,139,69,90,28142,19257,1125,241,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-119955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-another","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-close","12":"tag-closed","13":"tag-data","14":"tag-day","15":"tag-dominates","16":"tag-down","17":"tag-employment","18":"tag-likely","19":"tag-locked","20":"tag-market","21":"tag-month","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-on","26":"tag-quiet","27":"tag-rate","28":"tag-sharemarket","29":"tag-unemployment","30":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}