Labor has backed the International Monetary Fund's warning that a slower than expected rate of infrastructure spending will worsen the property and construction downturn.

The IMF's lead economist for Australia, Thomas Helbling, said the pace of infrastructure spending – as measured in the national accounts – had fallen short of what was scheduled in recent budget figures and if nothing was done to speed this up the property market could slide further.

Shadow infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese has totalled the amount of infrastructure spending that is actually set to flow through in the near term and said it was not anywhere near enough.

"Under Scott Morrison's budget, Australians would have to re-elect the Morrison government at least twice before they see the bulk of the extra infrastructure investment that was promised," Mr Albanese said.

ANZ Australian Job Advertisements fell by a further 1,.7 per cent for the month in March, extending its losses to be down 6 per cent year-on-year.

"Job ads are not showing any signs of reversing the weakness seen for some time," said ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank.

There were 166,509 total jobs ads during March on a seasonally adjusted basis, down from 166,432 in February and 170,860 in January.

"The signal coming from ANZ Job Ads is in complete contrast to that coming from job vacancies, which continue to reach record highs," Mr Plank said. "We think the divergence may reflect changes in the way firms search for employees, with more possibly directing job seekers to their own websites rather than advertising broadly for every position.

"If this is the case, then the divergence reflects a structural shift in ANZ Job Ads rather than signalling a weaker job market. Recent strength in business conditions and job vacancies suggest that the labour market will remain resilient despite weaker job ads."

One Saturday in March, in the suburbs north of Sydney, around three dozen people gathered on a lawn outside a smallish two-bedroom apartment.

They were taking part in an idiosyncrasy of the Australian economic system. Here, selling a home tends to be an almost festive gathering, in which potential buyers show up for an auction and neighbours stop by to watch the spectacle — and quietly calibrate how much their own home might be worth.

On this muggy day, almost all of the assembled crowd turned out to be gawkers; only four people actually raised their bidding paddles at any point. After bidding opened at $750,000, the action started slowly. Twice, it seemed to be petering out as the auctioneer, Andrew Robinson, nearly banged his final gavel, only to be extended with one more bid. Finally a young couple whose agent lobbed in a $930,000 offer won the day.

Read the full story here.

Australian shares are trading firmly higher through the middle of the day, led by the major resource stocks.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index is up 34.5 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 6215.8.

BHP Group is up 1.3 per cent, CSL is trading 1.6 per cent higher and Woodside Petroleum is up 1.5 per cent.

Resolute Mining shares are trading 8.6 per cent higher, Ardent Leisure Group is up 4 per cent and Orocobre is up 3.6 per cent.

Lithium won't have any meaningful impact on Australia's mineral exports until after the mid-2020's, according to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.

Lithium exports will jump $500 million to $1.5 billion and increase 168,000 tonnes by 2024 thanks to the opening of new WA mines, expansions of existing ones and new lithium refineries coming online.

But federal forecasts in the resources and energy quarterly found while WA will be pulling out a record 419,000 tonnes of lithium ore spodumene from the ground, it won't reap the same high prices the industry has experienced.

In 2017 and 2018 the price of spodumene hovered just below US$800 per tonne but the quarterly predicted as WA mines come online a global oversupply will drop prices to just above US$400 per tonne.

Hamish Hastie has the full story here.

The copper industry can learn from products as diverse as coffee and mangoes and enhance its "green copper credentials," according to the head of BHP's mining operations in the Americas.

Daniel Malchuk said increasing demand from consumers for more transparency in the supply chains of the goods they bought, coincided with the rising importance of copper in a low carbon economy.

He cited the cases of US retailer Walmart, a small American coffee shop, and technology giant Apple, describing how they increased the transparency of their supply chains.

The coffee shop revealed where its coffee beans came from, "from the farm, to the port, to roasting, to the shop front," he said, at a conference in Santiago on Saturday (Australian time). While Walmart introduced a system allowing customers to see in 2.2 seconds information like where their mangoes were grown, and how they were transported.

Darren Gray has the full story here.

Two Japanese heavyweight corporations have set the scene for a showdown with Wesfarmers over control of Lynas Corporation.

Leading trading firm Sojitz Corporation, Lynas's exclusive distribution partner in Japan, broke its silence on the Wesfarmers' indicative $1.5 billion takeover bid for Lynas on Monday, saying "we look forward to continuing to grow our business alongside our colleagues in the Lynas management team".

The Amanda Lacaze-led Lynas also received strong backing from its Japanese lenders Japan Australia Rare Earths, an arm of Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation.

Late on Friday Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Lynas would be able to continue processing its rare earths in the country, if it agreed to first decontaminate raw material before sending it there.

Brad Thompson has the full story here.

Resolute Mining shares are trading higher this morning after the company released its March quarter production update.

The gold miner said production had increased by 33 per cent for the quarter and that the company ahd achieved record quarterly gold production at its Syama mine in Mali.

"Syama is becoming the robust, flexible, high production, low cost gold mine we have envisaged," said managing director and CEO John Welborn. "Syama will be a powerhouse of gold production for Resolute for many years to come. Underground ore production will continue to ramp up. Importantly we have provided the team additional time to optimise and commission the most advanced underground mining automation system in the world."

Australian shares have opened firmly higher on Monday morning, led by the major resource stocks.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index is up 30 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 6211.3.

BHP Group shares are up 1.2 per cent, CSL is up 1.2 per cent also and Rio Tinto has climbed 0.9 per cent.

Resolute Mining is leading the gains, up 5.6 per cent, followed by Orocobre up 3.5 per cent and Speedcast International who is trading 2.9 per cent higher.

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The ASX is set for a bright start to the week as positive economic data bolstered Wll Street on Friday, writes Kyle Rodda.

Sentiment was nicely boosted to end the week last week. US Non-Farm Payrolls printed as closely to a so-called "goldilocks" figure for risk assets as you're ever liked to see. The data revealed the US economy added 196,000 jobs last month, against an expected figure of 172,000.

It was enough to keep the unemployment rate to its very low levels of 3.8 per cent. But the real kicker for market-bulls was the earnings component: wage growth missed estimates, revealing a monthly increase of 0.1 per cent, versus expectations of a 0.3 per cent expansion. The result from the NFPs achieved two things: a reassurance that growth in the US economy, while possibly late cycle, is still solid; and inflationary pressures coming from higher wages remain subdued.

Read the full 8@eight here.