Afternoon Report | ASX jumps on jobs data
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Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report for Thursday the 21st of May 2026. I'm Michael Thompson and every afternoon we've got the five stories that happened today that you need to know about. Let's get cracking. Story number one, the local share market has posted its biggest one-day gain in six weeks. After weaker-than-expected jobs data boosted hopes that the Reserve Bank may not need to keep lifting interest rates aggressively, the S&P ASX 200 jumped 1.5% today to 8,622 points. After that, data from the ABS showed that Australia unexpectedly somewhat lost jobs in April. and unemployment rose to 4.5%. We'll take a closer look at that on tomorrow morning's show. But today, banks and property stocks led the rally.
Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ, National Australia Bank all gained strongly. Mining giant BHP rebounded more than 3% while James Hardy Industries surged after releasing its full year results. Gold miners, including Newmont and Evolution Mining, also rose as gold prices recovered significantly.
But one of the day's standout performers was Guzmany Gomez, which rallied 13% today after a broker upgrade argued that the market was underestimating the earnings potential of the Mexican food chain's rapid store expansion plans. On to story number two, the world's most valuable company, NVIDIA, has reported another massive jump in revenue as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to surge right around the globe.
The chipmaker posted quarterly revenue of more than US$81 billion, up 85% from a year ago, driven largely by booming demand for AI chips powering data centers. Chief Executive Yen-Tsun Hwang described the global build-out of AI infrastructure as, and I quote, the largest infrastructure expansion in human history. Now, NVIDIA also forecast even stronger sales next quarter, though apparently, you can't please everyone, investors were somewhat underwhelmed by that outlook and that sent shares slightly lower. In after-hours trading, the company also announced a major increase in its dividend and an additional $80 billion US dollar share buyback. Story number three, back home again now, and the corporate regulator says it's up to three quarters of the way through its investigation into the collapse of the Shield and First Guardian investment schemes, which wiped out the savings of around 12,000 investors.
The Financial Review reports ASIC has launched fresh legal action against equity trustees, alleging the ASX-listed company failed to act in the best financial interests of members by allowing investments into the First Guardian scheme without sufficient scrutiny and ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said the regulator had now completed all actions against superannuation trustees involved in the failed schemes, but warned that further litigation against other entities and individuals is likely. Equity Trustees says it intends to defend the proceedings. Story number four, Optus' owner Singtel says it wants to sell a minority stake in the telco. Singtel has told investors that it's seeking a like-minded, long-term local partner to take a meaningful minority stake in Optus, though it has stressed that it does remain committed to the Australian business long-term.
The announcement follows years of controversies now for Optus, including the major 2022 cyber attack. the nationwide outage the following year in 2023, and then last year's triple zero network failure linked to three deaths. Industry analysts quoted today in media reports say the move will likely reignite speculation that Singtel could eventually pursue a full exit from the Australian market. And finally, story number five. How about this one? A major security scare at Avalon Airport near Geelong. The triggered evacuations, police bomb squad checks and flight delays was ultimately caused by a laser hair removal device packed inside a traveler's bag. Police say the suspicious item was detected during security screening early this morning, prompting a partial lockdown of the airport.
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