MELBOURNE, June 25, 2026, 02:05 AEST
- NAB finished the day at A$38.75, rising 1.1%. The ASX 200 added 0.24%.
- Headline inflation eased to 4.0%, while the trimmed mean increased to 3.6%.
- RBA Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser said inflation is “far too high.” May jobs figures drop Thursday. Reuters
National Australia Bank shares gained 1.1% and ended at A$38.75 on Wednesday. That outperformed the S&P/ASX 200, which finished up 0.24% at 8,808.4. Mixed inflation data left traders watching for a possible Reserve Bank rate hike.
Westpac added 0.85% to A$35.78. Commonwealth Bank traded up 0.35% at A$164.79. NAB had the top gain out of the three.
Headline inflation in Australia came in at 4.0% for the year to May, lower than the 4.2% pace in April. The trimmed mean, which strips out big price spikes, moved up to 3.6% from 3.4%, according to the .
The RBA has taken its cash rate up three times so far this year, reaching 4.35%. Deputy Governor Hauser said cheaper oil worldwide should help, but domestic inflation is “far too high” and “we still have work to do”. Reserve Bank of Australia
NAB this week said it has launched NAB Nexus, an all-hours center bringing together the bank’s tech, cybersecurity, fraud, payments and physical security teams. CEO Andrew Irvine said, “AI is also going to help criminals and their threats much faster.” Chief Security Officer Sandro Bucchianeri said AI was “lowering the barrier for criminals to operate at scale.” NAB spent over A$900 million on fraud, scam, cyber and financial-crime protections for the 2025 financial year. NAB News
NAB posted cash earnings of A$3.558 billion for its May half-year, stripping out changes in how it counts software. Revenue was up 3.1%. Costs came down a bit. The interim dividend came in at 85 Australian cents a share.
Another rate hike would put more strain on borrowers. NAB posted A$706 million in credit impairment charges for the first half, money set aside for loans that might not get paid back. Around A$300 million of that tied to risks from the Middle East conflict. “It’s very hard to forecast in these times,” Irvine said. Reuters
May jobs numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics are due out at 11:30 a.m. AEST Thursday. Unemployment was 4.5% in April, the most in four and a half years.
