Energy leads ASX lower, Aussie dollar's rally eases

The news: The Australian sharemarket has finished lower for a second day in a row, the benchmark ASX 200 losing 0.7% to close at 7,058.40 on Thursday. The Aussie dollar has fallen below 65 US cents to trade at 64.5 US cents after a Wednesday rally on the back of diverging central bank narratives following the cooler than expected US CPI print. Australia's unemployment rate edged 0.1 percentage point higher to 3.7% in October, the ABS data drop preceding a 0.6% drop in the Aussie's value against the greenback.

The numbers: Energy stocks weighed on the index, with the sector giving up 1.2% as Santos, Whitehaven and Woodside fell 2.4%, 1.8% and 0.9% respectively, as oil prices continued to slump on the back of rising US crude inventories. Energy stocks are down more than 7.5% in a month. Despite an uptick on the tech-heavy NASDAQ overnight, IT stocks swung more than a percentage point into the red, while utilities stocks performed best, gaining 0.6% as Origin lifted by 2%.

The context: Lendlease and Accent Group will hold AGMs tomorrow, and China ecommerce giant Alibaba will post quarterly earnings overnight. It's a quiet day for Australian macro data on Friday, but tonight investors will be looking to US unemployment claims, industrial production figures, and UK retail sales to offer data points on the global economic conditions.