Good Morning Fellow Traders, Thanks @Quantum Torus, @Ravgnome...

Good Morning Fellow Traders,

Thanks @Quantum Torus, @Ravgnome and AM Loungers. Pretty quiet in the Lounge overnight but I guess there wasn't much trading happening yesterday due to holidays here and there. I'm expecting that trading will start to kick up a notch this month.

Shout out to @paddington bear who's taking a break for the month. Missing your morning analysis and hope you're fine.

The Australian share market has closed lower, dragged down by the financial sector after a correction to banking stocks following the release of the royal commission's interim report on Friday afternoon.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 35.3 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 6172.3 points on Monday, while the broader All Ordinaries index was 32.9 points, or 0.52 per cent, lower at 6292.6 points.

The local market ended last week higher after banking shares bounced on the less-than-expected fallout from the Hayne royal commission's interim report, but CommSec chief market analyst Steven Daghlian said most of the gains had been reversed on Monday.

"Last time they had an improvement that was as strong was in late August, so generally the banks haven't done so well," he said.
"Quite quickly (after the report was released) we had a bit of a bounce back from the banks and now I think they've come back down to where they were before."

The sector was the biggest drag on the market, down 1.3 per cent.
ANZ recorded the biggest loss, down 1.6 per cent to $27.73, followed by Westpac, down 1.5 per cent to $27.50, Commonwealth Bank, down 1.4 per cent to $70.42, and NAB, down 0.8 per cent to $27.60.

All sectors were down on Monday except health care, with benchmark CSL closing 1.1 per cent higher at $203.31.

Rallies for copper and iron ore prices didn't translate to gains for the materials sector, with BHP and Rio Tinto both down about 0.1 per cent after confirming mining asset sales last week.

Llithium miner Orocobre, meanwhile, has appointed new chief executive Martin Perez de Solay to focus on the Olaroz joint venture in northern Argentina, and its $US285 million ($A394 million) stage two expansion, increasing production to 45,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year.
Orocobre shares were down 0.5 per cent to $4.20.

Nufarm shares fell to their lowest level in more than three-and-a-half years when the company resumed trading following a $283 million capital raising after reporting a $15.6 million full-year loss due to drought-related impairments last week.
It was 8.2 per cent lower at $6.05.

Elsewhere, weaker house prices in Sydney and Melbourne have continued to drag down the national market, with a 0.5 per cent drop in September marking 12 months of consistently falling prices.

Interest rates are expected to remain steady again as the Reserve Bank meets on Tuesday.
The Australian dollar was steady with many states' business districts closed for a public holiday.
The Aussie was buying 72.13 US cents, down 72.18 US cents on Friday.

ON THE ASX:
* The S&P/ASX200 was down 35.3 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 6172.3 points
* The All Ordinaries was 32.9 points, or 0.52 per cent, lower at 6292.6 points
* In futures trading the SPI200 futures index was up 34 points, or 0.55 per cent, at 6160.0 points at 1630 AEST.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 1630 AEST:
One Australian dollar buys:
* 72.13 US cents, from 72.18 US cents on Friday.
* 82.19 Japanese yen, from 81.89
* 62.21 euro cents, from 61.05
* 55.33 British pence, from 55.20
* 109.09 NZ cents, from 109.19

GOLD:
The spot price of gold in Sydney at 1630 AEST was $US1188.00 per fine ounce, from $US1182.93 on Friday.

The Dow and S&P 500 began the fourth quarter on a positive note on Monday, after a last-minute deal to salvage NAFTA as a trilateral pact helped ease trade worries, although major indexes finished off their session highs.

Canada and Mexico accepted more restrictive commerce in the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which will make it harder for global automakers to build cars cheaply in Mexico and aims to bring more jobs to the United States.

The industrial sector .SPLRCI, sensitive to trade developments in recent months, was up 0.9 percent, its best day in five weeks.

“It is good news not only for NAFTA and North America in general but a lot of market participants are really viewing this as a positive for future negotiations, especially with China,” said Lindsey Bell, investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.
“It is short on detail but the market seemingly doesn’t care, I am definitely interested in seeing exactly what the details are.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 192.9 points, or 0.73 percent, to 26,651.21, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 10.61 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,924.59 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 9.05 points, or 0.11 percent, to 8,037.30.
October is traditionally one of the tougher months for the S&P, although LPL Financial’s senior market strategist Ryan Detrick points out the S&P 500 has averaged a 3.3 percent return during October in midterm election years.

Aside from industrials, the materials .SPLRCM and energy .SPNY sectors also rose more than 1 percent. Energy stocks got a boost as crude oil prices hit their highest level since 2014 on a combination of the new trade agreement and U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Small-cap stocks were under pressure, with the Russell 2000 off 1.39 percent. Smaller names had been seen as more immune to trade pressures and the index is now off nearly 4 percent from its Aug. 31 high.

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) shares soared 17.3 percent as signs it had met targets for quarterly production numbers added to relief at Chief Executive Elon Musk’s settling a lawsuit with regulators that could have forced him out.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.34-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.88-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 46 new 52-week highs and 10 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 99 new highs and 84 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.86 billion shares, compared with the 6.89 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Source: Netwealth Morning Business Roundup

Hope you're all still getting stuck into those strawberries. Here's a yummy Berry and Granola Tart (yep another tart) and a Coffee.



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