The Australian sharemarket has cracked a fresh intraday record as financials and real estate stocks rallied after an unexpectedly weak jobs report raised the prospect of an imminent rate cut from the Reserve Bank.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index reached a record high of 9109.7 points around lunchtime before paring gains to be up 86.9 points, or 1 per cent, to 9077.8 as of 2pm on Thursday AEDT, with 10 out of the 11 sectors flashing green.

The bourse reset its intraday record after Australia’s jobless rate unexpectedly rose to a four-year high of 4.5 per cent that prompted bond traders to rapidly price in a rate cut – a roughly 70 per cent chance – when the RBA meets next month. Consensus was for unemployment to hold at 4.3 per cent.

“Even allowing for monthly volatility, it’s clear that the pace of employment demand has slowed in recent months,” said Betashares chief economist David Bassanese. “Today’s soft labour market report should lower the bar for an interest rate cut in November – though it’s still not yet a done deal.”

The markets moves followed a topsy-turvy session in New York as traders weighed up simmering trade tensions between the US and China. The S&P 500 opened higher, plunged, before rebounding to finish the day up 0.4 per cent.

On the ASX, the big four banks led the bourse higher with index heavyweight Commonwealth Bank climbing 1.3 per cent. Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ were up by a similar amount.

Macquarie Group was particularly strong, jumping 5.2 per cent on news that it would sell the Texas-based Aligned Data Centers for $US40 billion ($61 billion) to a consortium including BlackRock, Nvidia and Microsoft.

Rate-sensitive real estate stocks also advanced amid rising expectations of another interest rate cut, with Goodman Group up 3.7 per cent, Mirvac 3.5 per cent, and Stockland 3.6 per cent.

In the materials sector, gold miners continued to surge as the price of bullion topped $US4200 an ounce for the first time, bolstered by US rate cut bets and safe haven demand. Genesis jumped 7.5 per cent, while Northern Star gained 1.9 per cent, Evolution 3 per cent, Newmont 4 per cent, Capricorn 1.2 per cent, and Perseus 2.6 per cent.

Elsewhere, investors took profits from rare earth stocks after they rocketed earlier in the week following China’s announcement it would dramatically expand its export controls on the materials. Australian Rare Earths tanked 18.8 per cent, while Iluka fell 7.9 per cent, and Lynas 5.2 per cent, and Australian Strategic Metals 5 per cent.

The IT sector also fell, weighed down by Wisetech, which came off 1.7 per cent. Xero lost 1.5 per cent, while Life360 dropped 3.2 per cent.

Stocks in focus

In corporate news, Mayne Pharma jumped 11 per cent after the Supreme Court of NSW on Wednesday ruled that American pharmaceutical giant Cosette could not terminate its $672 million takeover of the ASX-listed company, with the final decision on the deal now in the hands of the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Entertainment Rewards rocketed 950 per cent after announcing that its majority shareholder, Suzerain, had made a cash takeover offer.

Treasury Wine Estates rose 2.7 per cent despite chairman John Mullen saying preliminary data showed that sales in China in 2025-26 would fall “well below” previous expectations, with some high-end wine to be re-allocated to other countries.

AMP jumped 9.5 per cent after it reported that total assets under management increased by 3.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter to $159.5 billion.

And DroneShield dropped 3.2 per cent as investors continued to take profits, with the tech stock now down nearly 25 per cent from its intraday record of $6.70 set last week. The stock is still up more than 500 per cent this year.