The Australian share market has ended the financial year sharply lower, after a mixed day on Wall Street and amid investor concern about rising interest rates, inflation and the threat of a recession.
The ASX 200 was down almost 2 per cent to 6,568.
The All Ordinaries also lost just over 1.9 per cent to reach 6,746.
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar was up 0.1 per cent to 68.89 US cents.
Health care was the only sector to close in the green.
Utilities, miners and energy were the worst-performing sectors.
Pointsbet was the best-performing stock, up 12.8 per cent.
Graincorp, Domino's, Iluka Resources and James Hardie rounded out the top-five stocks.
Leading the declines were Tyro Payments (-6.1 per cent), Unibail-Rodamco Westfield (-5.3 per cent), Liontown Resources (-5.3 per cent), Janus Henderson Group (-5.2 per cent) and Regis Resources (-5.1 per cent).
Job vacancies hit almost half a million
The number of job vacancies in May rose to 480,000, which is more than double that recorded in February 2020 and 58,000 more than February 2022, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
“The number of job vacancies rose by 14 per cent over the three months to May 2022, to almost half a million jobs," Bjorn Jarvis, head of Labour Statistics at the ABS, said.
"This reflected increasing demand for workers, particularly in customer-facing roles, with businesses continuing to face disruptions to their operations, as well as ongoing labour shortages.”
The percentage of businesses reporting at least one vacancy also increased.
“A quarter of businesses reported having at least one vacancy in May 2022," Mr Jarvis said.
"This rate was more than double the pre-pandemic level in February 2020 (11 per cent), which highlights the extent to which businesses are finding it more difficult to find staff."
“The large growth in vacancies through the pandemic has coincided with a decline in the number of unemployed people.
"As a result, there was almost the same number of unemployed people and vacant jobs in May 2022 (1.1 unemployed people per vacant job), compared with three times as many people before the start of the pandemic (3.1).”
The largest growth in job vacancies was in Victoria (up 18 per cent over the three months to May), followed by a rise of 12 per cent in New South Wales.
Retail had the highest quarterly growth in job vacancies at 38 per cent, followed by information media and telecommunications services (18 per cent) and arts and recreation services (16 per cent).
Brookfield buy-in at AGL
Canadian investment manager Brookfield has bought a 2.6 per cent stake in AGL Energy through a subsidiary.
The company Australia 123456789 4 Pty Limited made the move on June 24, according to AGL.
AGL said it became aware of the link between routine registry analysis.
Brookfield would not make any further comment when contacted by the ABC.
The Canadian firm staged two takeover bids of AGL with tech-billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes' Grok Ventures.
Mr Cannon-Brookes is the largest shareholder of AGL.
Grok and Brookfield are no longer involved.
AGL stocks closed 1.3 per cent lower.
Mixed day on Wall Street
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 82.32 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 31,029, while the other benchmarks closed slightly in the red.
The S&P 500 edged lower to 3,818, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also inched into the red at 11,177.
It has been the worst first half for Wall Street's benchmark index since president Richard Nixon's first term, according to Reuters.
"The market's struggling to find direction," Megan Horneman, chief investment officer at Verdence Capital Advisors, said.
"We had disappointing data, and the markets are waiting for earnings season, when we'll get more clarity with respect to future earnings and an economic slowdown," she said.
Market leaders Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.com provided the upside muscle, while economically sensitive chips, small caps and transports were underperforming the broader market.
With the end of the month and the second quarter a day away, the S&P 500 has set a course for its biggest first-half percentage drop since 1970.
The Nasdaq was on its way to its worst-ever first-half performance, while the Dow appeared on track for its biggest January-June percentage drop since the financial crisis.
All three indexes were bound to post their second-straight quarterly declines. The last time that happened was in 2015.
"We have a central bank that has had to pivot from a decades-old easy money policy to a tightening cycle," Ms Horneman said.
"This is new for a lot of investors."
"We're seeing a repricing for what we expect to be a very different interest rate environment going forward."
Of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, five lost ground on the day, with energy stocks suffering the largest percentage drop. Healthcare led the gainers.
Benchmark Treasury yields have risen by over 1.6 percentage points so far in 2022, which is their biggest first-half jump since 1984.
That explains why interest-rate-sensitive growth stocks have plunged over 26 per cent year-to-date.
Investors are also eyeing rate hikes to rein in inflation, while US GDP data showed the economy contracted slightly more than expected at 1.6 per cent.
It comes after consumer confidence data this week showed consumer expectations had sunk to their lowest level since March 2013.
Packaged food company General Mills jumped 6.3 per cent after its sales beat estimates.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc tumbled 23.6 per cent following the retailer's announcement that it had replaced chief executive officer Mark Tritton, hoping to reverse a slump.
Package deliverer FedEx Corp dropped 2.6 per cent in the wake of its disappointing margin forecast for its ground unit.
In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.7 per cent, Germany’s DAX fell 1.7 per cent and Britain's FTSE shed 0.1 per cent.
Iron ore futures price fell by 17 cents or 0.1 per cent to $US130.11 a tonne.
Spot gold has just slipped into the red, selling for $US1,816.10.
On the oil markets, Brent crude was down 0.2 per cent to $US116.10 a barrel, while West Texas crude was up 0.1 per cent to $US109.92 a barrel.
