Australian Stock Market Report – Midday August 7, 2014

Asian stock market — Pedestrians look at an electronic board showing the stock market indices of various countries outside a brokerage in Tokyo June 25, 2014. Asian shares were on the back foot early on Wednesday, taking their cue from Wall Street as the deepening crisis in Iraq and a report that the U.S. could be loosening restrictions on crude exports triggered a rally in oil prices. REUTERS/Yuya Shino (JAPAN - Tags: BUSINESS)

Another tough day for the Aussie markets, we saw the ASX 200 started only slightly weaker off 2pts. But by 11.25am the markets had fallen back by 14 points and just after the release of the weaker than expected July Jobs numbers the market lost more ground now down 18.6 points.

Overnight the weak economic data our of Europe led by the news that Italy has fallen back into recession and reports about that the Russian military were performing military exercises near Ukraine's border.

The Australian market was hit by weakness in banking and insurance stocks. While the industrials and utilities sector moved higher as investors moved into the safety of gas and oil distribution stocks.

Utility firm, APA Group (APA) announced it had decided to sell into Cheung Kong Group consortium's offer for Envestra Limited (EVA) and a price of $1.32 per ENV share. This news boosted the APA up 0.2.7% and EVN up 5.1%

The material sector was helped by the news that the US$ gold price rose by

Gold was up over $20 an ounce in overnight trade. In the Asian session in the gold price held steady at US$1,308 an ounce. Helping list Newcrest Mining Limited (NCM) up 4%. The US$ oil price regained a little straight in early trade now up 0.13c or 0.13% to US$97.05 a barrel.

Gaming group Tabcorp Holdings Limited (TAH) lifted its full year 2014 profit up 3% even with lower revenue over the period off 4%. TAH posted a net profit of $129.9Million up from$126.6 million a year ago. TAH shares up 2.9% to $3.55 a share

The July job numbers were weak - Employment fell 300 in July after rising by revised 14,900 in June (previously reported as a 15,900 lift in jobs). Full-time jobs rose by 14,400 in July after falling by 3,800 in June. Part-time jobs fell by 14,800 in July after rising by 18,800 in June.A total of 109,900 new full-time jobs have been created in the first seven months of 2014 - the best start to a calendar year since 2008.

The unemployment rate lifted from 6.1% to 6.4% in July - a 12 year high.

The participation rate rose from 64.7 per cent to 64.8 per cent.

Rio Tinto (RIO) first half result will be released after the close of the markets at (4.15pm AEDT) AUD 0.9350 before now the July job number and after the result the Aussie dollar fell back sharply in the next 15 minutes of trade and is now at 0.9297.