Job vacancies fall in November quarter: Midday Roundup

Job vacancies have fallen in the November quarter, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The figures show that in the three months to November, the total number of job vacancies fell by 0.8% to 182,200.

The number of private sector vacancies was 164,900 in November, representing a decline of 0.7%, while there were 17,200 vacancies in the public sector, down 1.2% from the previous quarter.

Total vacancies have now fallen 3.2% over the year.

Shares rise after strong overseas leads

The Australian sharemarket has opened higher this morning after positive leads from overseas markets.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 43 points or 1% to 4195.3 at 12.00 AEST, while the Australian dollar was also higher, reaching $US1.03c.

AMP shares rose 2% to $4.30, while Commonwealth Bank shares rose 0.76% to $50.16. Westpac shares rose 2.52% to $20.71 as NAB rose 1.06% to $23.75.

In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 69.8 points or 0.6% to 12,462.5.

ASIC to crack down on super funds

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has signalled that it intends to crack down on superannuation funds and money managers in order to improve disclosure.

Chairman Greg Medcraft told the Australian Financial Review the increased effort started after AustralianSuper told him that no specific information on where super was invested was available.

“Clearly I don’t think that is good enough,” Medcraft said. “The person who has the most skin in the game is the investor and they should be entitled to see what is in their own underlying fund.”

Brambles gets $2 billion PE offer: Report

Pallet maker Brambles has reportedly received offers from private equity groups for its US document management business, which is tipped to be worth $2 billion.

According to a Reuters report, Carlyle Group and Apollo Global Management are among the groups looking at the Recall business.

Final bids are expected in a month, sources told the news wire.

The companies declined to comment.

Kodak suing Apple on patents

Meanwhile, Eastman Kodak is reportedly suing Apple and HTC Corp for patent infringements.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the accusations cover image previewing and image transmission technologies.

The paper says that Kodak had been using patent licensing and litigation to fund a turnaround of the business.