Aust shares on track for 3rd day of losses this week

The ASX200 was down 1.75 per cent since last Friday's close, with a few hours of trading left in the holiday-shortened week. 

Barring a miraculous turnaround, this week will also be its third week of losses in the past four weeks, though the index is still up 0.3 per cent so far in June.

Friday morning's losses come despite a positive lead from Wall Street, where the S&P500 rose 0.2 per cent and the Nasdaq gained for a fourth day in a row. 

Dimming hopes for domestic rate cuts this year may be behind the malaise, particularly after Thursday's better-than-expected labour force report, which showed nearly 40,000 new jobs being created in May, 10,000 more than economists predicted. 

ANZ's economics team on Friday pushed back its prediction for when the Reserve Bank would begin cutting interest rates, forecasting they would not begin until February 2025, rather than November. 

There's been less weakness in household spending than predicted, government spending has been growing, and inflation was stronger than expected in the first quarter, making a rate cut in November unlikely, ANZ economist Adam Boyton wrote.

ANZ predicted a second cut in April and a third in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Scott Solomon, co-portfolio manager of the T. Rowe Price Dyanmic Global Bond Strategy, said separately on Friday that the global fund manager believed an RBA rate cut in 2024 was unlikely.

The RBA meets on Tuesday, with the interest rate markets giving an implied 95 per cent odds that Australia's central bank will stand pat and a five per cent chance it will issue a surprise rate cut, according to the ASX's RBA Rate Indicator.

Eight of the ASX's 11 sectors were lower at midday, with property flat and consumer discretionary and health care slightly higher.

The industrial sector was the biggest loser, falling 1.0 per cent as Computershare dropped 2.0 per cent and Brambles dipped 1.7 per cent.

In the heavyweight mining sector, goldminers were seeing red as the precious metal changed hands at $US,2306 an ounce, down from $2,340 earlier in the week.

Evolution had dropped 2.4 per cent, Northern Star had slid 3.0 per cent and Resolute Mining was down 5.5 per cent.

Elsewhere in the sector, Rio Tinto had dropped 0.5 per cent, Fortescue was down 0.8 per cent and BHP had edged 0.1 per cent lower.

The Big Four banks were all slightly lower, by between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent.

Telix Pharmaceuticals was down 0.5 per cent to a two-week low of $16.375 after the Melbourne-based radiopharmaceutical company cancelled a proposed US initial public offering it had spent five months and "incredibly long hours" preparing for.

The Nasdaq listing wasn't needed to raise capital and in the end would have required discounts that weren't aligned to Telix's duty to existing shareholders, the company said.

The Australian dollar was buying 66.37 US cents, from 66.45 US cents at Thursday's ASX close.