ASX Rallies as Weak US Jobs Data Cools Rate Hike Fears — While Half of Australia Skips Work for Bunnings

The ASX climbed around 0.4% by midday Monday in extremely light trade, as a public holiday kept a fair chunk of the country away from their desks — and away from the market. Still, at least the market had the decency to go up a smidge for those who showed up.

Bad US Jobs News = Good Market News

Wall Street rallied after Friday's disappointing US jobs report, with markets once again treating weak economic data as a reason to cheer. The US added just 29,000 jobs in September, well below expectations, while revisions stripped another 60,000 jobs from the previous two months. Unemployment also ticked up to 4.2%.

That was enough to push the odds of an October Fed rate hike below 25%, down from around 70% earlier in the week — sending the Nasdaq to another record high in the process.

Locally, gains were fairly broad, with resources and industrials doing much of the work while tech took a breather after Friday's big run. Property and consumer staples were the main holdouts. Trading volumes were thin — as expected when half the country is at Bunnings in thongs.

The ASX has now clawed back more than half of Thursday's 2% fall across the past two sessions. Not exactly a Lazarus job, but not bad.

Big Moves in the Large Caps

• CSL (ASX:CSL) put US$355 million upfront on the table for a co-development deal with Alentis Therapeutics covering lixudebart, a potential treatment for rare kidney and liver diseases. CSL will fully fund a phase 2 kidney trial, a planned phase 3 study and further phase 2 work, with another US$1.2 billion potentially payable in commercial milestones. Global profits would be split 55% to CSL and 45% to Alentis if the drug makes it to market.
• Ingenia Communities Group (ASX:INA) has finally cracked the door open for Warburg Pincus, granting the US private equity group initial, non-exclusive due diligence on its $5.25-a-security proposal after knocking back two earlier approaches. Ingenia is still pushing ahead with its Peet deal for now.
• MAAS Group Holdings (ASX:MGH) jumped 5.4% to a record high of $7.25 after Macquarie crunched the numbers on its stake in data centre hopeful Firmus Grid. If Firmus lands the mooted $43.7 billion valuation in its upcoming float, MAAS's 3.2% holding could be worth about $1.4 billion — roughly $4 a share.
• Metrics Master Income Trust (ASX:MXT) resumed trading under pressure following a $47.1 million revaluation loss in its FY26 accounts. Its $2.35 billion investment in underlying loan funds was reclassified as Level 3, meaning valuations rely on unobservable inputs, and those funds have temporarily stopped accepting applications and redemptions.

Small Caps Making Noise

• Normandy Minerals (ASX:NMD) made its ASX debut after raising $12 million at 20c a share, surging 45% intraday to give investors a new gold and base-metals explorer to kick the tyres on.
• Imugene (ASX:IMU) reported further responses from its phase 1b azer-cel trial, with the BTK inhibitor-resistant cohort now showing a 71% overall response rate across seven patients.
• Lodestar Minerals (ASX:LSR) received all final assays from its 106-hole, 12,417m RC program at Ned's Creek, clearing the way for a maiden gold resource estimate in the second half of October.
• Optiscan Imaging (ASX:OIL) lodged a US FDA 510(k) application for its InVue precision surgery device, following its earlier InForm pathology submission and targeting the US surgical oncology market.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.