The Aussie market ended weaker today, in spite of meagre gains on Wall Street overnight.

Most markets were trading on lower volumes as investors remained cautious ahead of a key EU summit on Friday.

Back home employment data released showed an increase in the jobless rate to 5.3% in November. Economists were expecting the rate to stay the same at 5.2%.

The total number of people employed fell 6,300 in November, which was well short of economist expectations of a 10,000 net gain.

A breakdown of the numbers revealed a decrease in full-time employment of 39,900 people, which coincided with an increase in part-time employment of 33,600.

The banks were mixed; with NAB adding 0.9% and rival ANZ losing 0.5%. Both banks today announced they will be passing on the full 25bps rate cut to consumers.

The big miners were down slightly on the back of weaker commodities; Rio Tinto dropped 0.2% while BHP lost 0.1%.

Energy majors were hurt by lower oil prices; Woodside dived 2.3%, whilst Santos tumbled 3.9%.

The ASX 200 shed 12 points (-0.3%), settling at 4281.

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Evening Market Analysis: Another Quiet Session is a post from: Australian Stock Report Market Pulse Blog