Australian Markets Fall as Mining Stocks Drag ASX Lower; RBA Deputy Governor to Speak

ASX 200: -0.76% to 8,620 points (live values below)

All Ordinaries: -0.73% to 8,851 points

Australian dollar: -0.13% to 71.26 US cents

Asia: Nikkei -1.5%, Hang Seng -1.6%, KOSPI -1.8%

Wall Street: S&P500 -0.7%, Dow -1.2%

Europe: FTSE -0.4%

Spot gold: -0.84% to $US4,436/ounce

Oil: Brent futures +0.45% to $US95.46/barrel

Iron ore: +0.19% to $US101.8/tonne

Bitcoin: -1.5% to $US62,621

Prices at about 1:25pm AEST.

Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser will start speaking in a few minutes, at an economic outlook event in Sydney, hosted by The Australian and Sky News.

The Bureau of Statistics published its quarterly labour account data this morning (for the March quarter). In seasonally adjusted terms for the March quarter: total jobs increased 0.7% to 16.5 million, filled jobs increased 0.6% to 16.2 million, secondary jobs increased 0.6% to 1.1 million, proportion of vacant jobs increased to 2.1%, multiple job-holders increased 0.3% to 978,000, hours worked increased 0.9% to 6.1 billion hours.

As it shows, there are now 978,000 people working multiple jobs, up 0.3% in the quarter. It means the multiple job holding rate (proportion of all employed people) is currently 6.5%.

The multiple job-holding rate is an interesting number to follow. It was 6% at the start of 2020, it dropped to 5.1% at the start of the pandemic, then it recovered after lockdowns ended and the international border reopened. Then, after inflation took off in 2022 and 2023, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and when the Reserve Bank lifted interest rates significantly, the multiple-job holding rate jumped to 6.7%.

A recent working paper from IMF economists (and a senior RBA researcher) found that when the RBA hiked rates rapidly between mid-2022 and the end of 2023 (from 0.1% to 4.35%) to try to dampen economic activity and kill inflation, many Australians in highly indebted households took on second or third jobs, to try manage their rising interest payments.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) says it is still investigating 15 of the 16 sunscreens a Choice analysis found fell short of their SPF claims. The TGA said the sunscreens had not been recalled while they were being investigated, meaning they could still be sold to consumers. It told Senate estimates it hopes to conclude investigations soon.

Greens Senator Barbara Pocock continued her grilling of ASIC regarding KPMG, asking chief executive Scott Gregson whether the corporate watchdog will follow the example of the RBA and ATO and retender contracts.

ASIC has eight active contracts with KPMG with a total value of approximately $3 million. None involve the company audit areas of KPMG that are in question. ASIC has approached KPMG this week seeking assurances of the absence of involvement of those persons involved in the matters that are public.

The corporate watchdog, ASIC, has told Senate estimates it has commenced a formal investigation into KPMG. It follows the resignations of chief executive Andrew Yates, head of audit Julian McPherson and chief operating officer Eileen Hoggett in the past week, over a whistleblower scandal. An internal whistleblower came forward in 2024, claiming partners misused confidential client information to win audits.

Politicians have hesitated to weigh in on whether it would be good or bad if house prices start to fall. The government's proposed changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax have contributed to a slowdown at auctions as people wait to see how it will affect them. The reforms have passed through the House of Representatives, but will need the support of the Greens to pass them in the Senate.

Mining stocks are dragging the market down today. BHP Group is down 2.2%, Rio Tinto is down 1.6% and Mineral Resources is down 4.5%. Smaller miners (like Liontown -6.8% and Resolute Mining -6.3%) are dominating the bottom movers. Megaport is leading the top movers, up 11.8%. It resumed trading following a $518 million equity raising to invest in Nvidia chips.

A fuel excise cut designed to ease the pressure of the oil crisis on Australians temporarily is set to expire on June 30. The federal government halved the fuel excise to buffer the impact of rising oil prices in the wake of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, and subsequent disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. But there is no clear end date for the conflict and no agreement on how shipping through the strait will be managed. It means uncertainty over future fuel supplies remains high and prices are unlikely to ease.

The ASX200 is down around 0.5% in midday trade, to 8,639 points. The broader All Ordinaries index is also down around 0.5%, to 8,870 points. Healthcare, real estate and consumer non-cyclicals are leading the sectors today, while basic materials, energy and financials are all down.

Scamwatch has received more than 45,000 reports of scams in the first three months of this year, down almost 18 percent on the same time in 2025. Of these reports, 6,775 involved a financial loss, with total reported losses of $76.7 million. Reportcyber received more than 15,000 scam-related reports from January to March 2026, with reported losses of $187.7 million. The National Anti-Scam Centre disrupted thousands of scam operations during this period, with more than 5,800 scam websites taken down.

ANZ has cut fixed rate home loan rates by 0.10 percentage points. No other big four bank has done this recently. ANZ's decision comes just days after GDP figures were released, showing Australia's economy was sluggish in the first quarter of 2026 as the RBA started hiking rates.

The RBA governor told the Senate that the property market is cooling from rate hikes.

Sydney property listings are at their highest level in 15 years - since 2009 - after a surge in May. In Melbourne, May was also a busy month for property listings, with the most going online since back in 2014. Auction clearance rates nationally had plunged to their lowest level in 6 years, with only 49% of properties selling under the hammer.

The assistant treasurer has been asked whether the federal government will ban financial firm KPMG from all government contract work. KPMG has recently been caught up in a swirl of scandals, including allegations that its audit partners accessed confidential client documents to win contracts and reports of the mistreatment of a whistleblower. The federal government will be examining all KPMG contracts in place.