Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew. Half-time wrap:...

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Australian shares stumbled into a new fiscal year, hamstrung by soft US leads and political uncertainties in the US, UK and France.

The ASX 200 dropped 33 points or 0.41% by mid-session. Tech was one of the biggest drags after the Nasdaq slid 0.71% in the US on Friday. The heavily-weighted financial sector shed 0.64%.

Gains in BHP and Rio Tinto helped cushion the index against a deeper fall after Chinese factory activity expanded at the fastest rate in three years. Caixin's manufacturing PMI edged up to 51.8 from 51.7. Back home, job ads contracted 2.2% in June, underscoring pressures on employment.

US and European stocks fell on Friday ahead of elections in France and the UK and after a faltering presidential debate performance prompted some commentators to call for Joe Biden to drop out of the race for the White House. The S&P 500 declined 0.41% despite supportive inflation data.


Personal trading: Half-pip from OBM. For the last year I've been using Iress to "see" the market, and Marketech for cheap trade execution. Discovered this morning that without Iress I could barely see the market at all. Missed I88, ACW. Love Marketech's prices, but it's hopeless for identifying market trends, finding new trades, etc. Incredible how often Iress fails, considering they have the whole weekend to perform updates and test nothing's broken before Monday. That's the problem with monopolies (or near-monopolies) - no real consequences for failure, so incompetence goes unpunished. Imagine if this happened in the US.