Australian shares fall again, hitting fresh 5-week low

The US Commerce Department reported Wednesday that retail sales increased 0.6 per cent in December, up from the 0.4 per cent Dow Jones estimate, buoyed by a pick-up in clothing and accessory stores.

The market's implied odds for the Fed to cut rates at its March 20 meeting fell to 57.7 per cent, from 63.1 per cent a day earlier, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Domestically, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the unemployment rate remained at 3.ent in December, but employment fell by 65,000.

"The softening in the labour market is now undoubtedly well underway," wrote Ben Udy, lead economist for Oxford Economics Australia. 

But the unemployment rate is only a touch above the RBA's November forecasts, so the implications for monetary policy are limited, he added.

Every sector was lower at midday, with property the biggest laggard, falling 1.5 per cent as Scentre Group and GPT both dropped 2.4 per cent..

The energy sector was 1.2 per cent lower, with Woodside dropping 0.9 per cent, Santos down 1.4 per cent and Ampol retreating 2.5 per cent as the petrol station owner said an unplanned outage in December had caused a drop in volumes at its Lytton refinery in Queensland.

In the heavyweight mining sector, BHP was down 1.2 per cent as the Big Australian lowered full-year production guidance for its central Queensland coal operations after a "tough six months" for the half-year ended December 31.

Fortescue was up 0.7 per cent, Rio Tinto had edged 0.1 per cent higher and South32 had dropped 1.4 per cent.

The Big Four banks were mixed, with CBA down 0.3 per cent and ANZ dipping 0.2 per cent, while Westpac was flat and NAB had gained 0.5 per cent.

Barring an afternoon turnaround, Thursday will be the ASX's fifth straight day of declines - although its losses on Friday and Monday were very slight.

The Australian dollar was buying 65.56 US cents, from 65.58 US cents at Wednesday's ASX close.