Afternoon trading July 9

Thanks Bowser and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market faded towards a second straight loss as weakness among the banks outweighed a rebound in iron ore miners.

The ASX 200 briefly traded higher this morning before waning to a mid-session deficit of 20 points or 0.3 per cent at 6652. The mood on global markets has deteriorated since strong US jobs data on Friday threatened the reduction in US borrowing rates anticipated by most analysts. The benchmark local index yesterday suffered its biggest setback in five weeks, falling 79 points or 1.2 per cent.

The sugar hit to the banks from the Morrison tax cuts continued to wear off despite news this morning that the financial regulator will give lenders more time to build a buffer against strains in the financial system. CBA and NAB both shed 0.8 per cent, ANZ 1.1 per cent and Westpac 0.7 percent. A 4.7 per cent fall in Afterpay weighed on the technology sector.

Gold stocks fell further from last week's seven-year peak. Newcrest declined 1.9 per cent, Saracen Mineral 1.8 per cent and Regis Resources 1.5 per cent. Gold futures this morning eased $4.70 or 0.3 per cent to $US1,395.30 an ounce.

The index's losses would have been greater, if not for a recovery in the big resource stocks after a bounce in the price of iron ore yesterday. BHP rallied 1 per cent. Rio Tinto 1.6 per cent and Fortescue 1.7 per cent. Spot ore rebounded 3.1 per cent yesterday, a day after plunging almost 6 per cent on reports of a Chinese government investigation into this year's price surge.

Telstra was another standout today, reaching its highest point since September 2017. Shares were lately up 0.5 per cent at $3.87 after peaking at $3.90.

What's hot today and what's not:

Hot today: shares in Family Zone climbed 2 cents or 11.1 per cent to a three-month high after the cyber safety minnow announced its software was making headway in the US. The company revealed it had contracts with 402 schools in the US, increasing its global market penetration to 839 schools or 482,00 students. Sales to the US had increased by 173 per cent during the June quarter.

Not today: investors in cloud network solutions provider NetLinkz have seen the value of their shares multiply tenfold since February as the company sorted its balance sheet and gained a foothold in China. The company's shares have gone parabolic in the last fortnight, peaking at 28.5 cents yesterday after trading as low as 2.2 cents at the start of the year. This morning brought a setback, with the share price falling 3.9 per cent to 24.5 cents.

In economic news, business confidence weakened last month as the lift from the re-election of the Coalition wore off. NAB's monthly survey showed confidence deteriorated five points from a reading of +7 in May to +2 in June.

US stock index futures ticked lower during a mixed morning on Asian markets. S&P 500 futures were lately off 4.5 points or 0.2 per cent. China's Shanghai Composite lost 0.1 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.4 percent. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.2 per cent.

Turning to commodity markets, Brent crude futures dropped 19 cents or 0.3 per cent this morning to $US63.92 a barrel.

On currency markets, the dollar drifted more than a tenth of a cent down to 69.6 US cents.

Trading: scraped a pip off the low in NET but otherwise struggled to get entries. Not a lot of movement.