Thanks @Trees, @Ravgnome and AM Loungers. Yeah -it's me again. Running on about three hours of sleep and adrenaline.
The football continues to thrill. Brazil not so unexpectedly defeated Mexico 2-0 but the nail biter was the following match where Belgium came from a two goal deficit to win 3-2 against Japan. So happy with that result!!!
Australian shares have lost ground on the first day of the new financial year as weakness in Asian markets, courtesy of weaker-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data, flowed into local sentiment.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed 16.8 points, or 0.27 per cent, lower at 6,177.8 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index ended down 16.4 points, or 0.26 per cent, at 6,273.3 points.
The local market was dragged lower by energy, mining and financial stocks as the markets in China, Japan and Korea fell more than two per cent on Monday afternoon.
The energy sector was the biggest casualty, falling 0.81 per cent, with Woodside Petroleum, Origin Energy and Santos all ending in the red.
James Hardie suffered the heaviest fall with mining companies BHP Billiton, Newcrest Mining and BlueScope Steel also in retreat.
CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy said the local market held up relatively well, supported by individual stocks such as biotechnology giant CSL and construction heavyweight Cimic, given the selloff across Asia.
Asian markets came under pressure the latest manufacturing data - a survey of purchasing managers' activity - was softer than expected for May, while trade concerns continue to be a concern, Mr McCarthy said.
"It was slightly below expectations, about point one below, and although it didn't change the overall picture, it didn't help," Mr McCarthy said of the survey.
"The problem this week for markets, China in particular, is that no news is now bad news: we've got a deadline on the 6th of July for the introduction of tariffs by the US."
US President Donald Trump in mid-June gave the green light to a 25 per cent tariff on $US50 billion ($68 billion) of goods imported from China, with the levy to be implemented in two tranches.
Tariffs on $US34 billion worth of imports on 818 product categories take effect from July 6, with a second tranche worth $US16 billion to take effect at a later date.
China has retaliated with plans to impose an additional 25 per cent tariff on 659 US goods worth $US50 billion, with the first round to also take effect on July 6.
In local company news, Sigma Healthcare shares plunged 32.5 cents, or 40 per cent, to a seven-year low of 48.5 cents after the company lost its contract to supply the Chemist Warehouse discount chemist chain from mid-2019.
The Australian dollar lost some ground following the release of China's PMI data just before lunchtime
At 1700 AEST, the Australian dollar was trading at 73.78 US cents, slightly down from 73.89 US cents on Friday.
ON THE ASX:
* The benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed down 16.8 points, or 0.27 per cent, at 6,177.8 points
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 16.4 points, or 0.26 per cent, at 6,273.3 points
* The SPI200 futures contract was down 10 points, or 0.16 per cent, at 6,138 points at 1630 AEST
CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 1700 AEST:
One Australian dollar buys:
* 73.78 US cents, from 73.89 on Friday
* 81.674 Japanese yen, from 81.721 yen
* 63.31 euro cents, from 63.49 euro cents
* 55.97 British pence, from 56.37 pence
* 109.08 NZ cents, from 108.43 cents
GOLD:
The spot price of gold in Sydney at 1700 AEST was $US1,249.446 per fine ounce, from $US1,251.059 per fine ounce on Friday
Wall Street ended higher on Monday after a choppy session, with gains in Apple and other technology stocks offsetting worries about an escalating trade war between Washington and its trading partners.
Microsoft Inc (MSFT.O), Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O) each rose 1 percent or more, pushing the S&P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT up 0.99 percent, bringing gains for the year-to-date to 11 percent as investors bet on strong earnings from Silicon Valley in the approaching quarterly reporting season.
“It doesn’t look like tech is going to slow down this year,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “The tech play is here to say.”
Traders were also eyeing the July 6 deadline for U.S. tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods to kick in, which pose the danger of a strong response from Beijing.
The European Union has warned the United States that imposing import tariffs on cars and car parts would likely lead to counter-measures on $294 billion of U.S. exports, while Canada has vowed to take punitive measures in response to U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs.
“These tit-for-tat trade tariffs will ultimately raise prices for consumers and will likely dampen demand for products,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Wealth Advisors in Chicago.
Ablin said he expected strong U.S. corporate earnings for the quarter ended in June, but that profits for the rest of 2018 were in danger of being hurt by an escalating trade war.
Only three of the 11 main S&P 500 sectors ended lower on Monday, with energy .SPNY down 1.55 percent on the back of a 2 percent drop in Brent crude LCOc1.
Wall Street suffered steep losses at the start of the session, but reversed course later.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.15 percent to end at 24,307.18 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.31 percent to 2,726.71. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 0.76 percent to 7,567.69.
On Tuesday, U.S. stock exchanges will close at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, when the exchanges will also be closed. With some investors already taking time off on Monday, volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.2 billion shares, compared with the 7.3 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.09-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.55-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted two new 52-week highs and 11 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 52 new highs and 70 new lows.
Source: Netwealth Morning Business Roundup
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