Markets Live: ASX lower despite base metal rebound

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11:59am

The good news is that Primary Health Care chairman Rob Ferguson had a better back-up plan for his untimely departure from the big chair on Tuesday than he did for the departure of his controversial former CEO, Peter Gregg.

Ferguson announced his departure, effective immediately, "due to unforseen family circumstances" on Tuesday with Primary board member Rob Hubbard stepping into the breach.

So there is no reason for it to attract the attention that Gregg's departure did.

The former Qantas executive had to step down from the health care group - eventually - after being charged with two counts of falsifying records while an executive at Leighton Holdings.

He has denied any wrongdoing and is fighting the charges.

Colin Kruger has the full story here.

11:52am

Inflation has fallen just shy of market forecasts for the June quarter, rising 0.4 per cent and 2.1 per cent for the year as a spike in petrol costs edged out falls in the prices of domestic holidays, new cars and vegetables.

Core inflation was in-line with expectations, rising 0.5 per cent.

Economists were looking for a result of 0.5 per cent for the quarter on both a headline and core (trimmed mean and weighted median) basis. On an annual measure, the market was expecting headline inflation to accelerate to 2.2 per cent from 1.9 per cent, or alternatively, stay flat at 1.9 per cent for the core reading.

11:45am

The NBN risks being relegated to a "network of last resort" amid the rise of 5G mobile services, and a write-down of the massive infrastructure project by the federal government "appears inevitable" global credit ratings agency Standard & Poors has declared.

In a new report that will reverberate throughout the telecommunications industry and in Canberra, S&P said official forecasts for the take-up of the NBN of between 73 per cent and 75 per cent by 2021 will be "difficult to achieve", raising the prospect the government will be forced to slash the value of the asset on its books.

It cited the NBN's controversial pricing structure, and rapid advances in mobile technologies - which could enable people to abandon fixed line internet connections altogether at home -as the factors behind a write-down, which would be politicially sensitive and potentially affect the Federal budget.

John McDuling has the full story here.

11:20am

The Australian dollar's top forecaster has a warning: the worst is yet to come.

Investors should short the Aussie versus the yen as increasing global-trade tensions weigh on the nation's exports, according to CIMB Bank. The currency is also poised to decline versus the US dollar, says CIMB, which had the most accurate estimates for the Aussie in Bloomberg's second-quarter rankings.

"On all fronts, the US-China trade war is Aussie-negative," said Marcus Wong, a treasury strategist at CIMB in Singapore. "Retaliatory action that inadvertently impacts the upstream or downstream of China's value chain, or leads to a keen deterioration in global risk sentiment, would see a further deterioration in the Aussie."

Read the full story here.

10:59am

Residential sales jobs have plummeted, reflecting the cooling in the housing markets, and sales jobs in the capital cities have taken the hardest hit, data from SEEK shows.

There was a 13 per cent net decline in total real estate job ads nationally, offset slightly by some growth in regional NSW and Victoria.

Queensland suffered the biggest fall in real estate job ads in the year to June, falling 24 per cent, followed by Western Australia, where job ads fell 22 per cent.

NSW and Victoria's job ads fell 10 and 11 per cent respectively.

Su-Lin Tan has the full story here.

10:41am

The IPO market is on track to deliver a strong performance in calendar 2018 with a pleasing number of listings in the first half backed up by a solid pipeline of deals in the lead up to Christmas.

The lower number of first-half listings compared with last year has not daunted industry observers such as HLB Mann Juddpartner Marcus Ohm who believes the 39 listings put away this year does not compare poorly with the 57 of the first half prior.

"Around two thirds of listings taking place in the second half of the year, so 39 listings in the first half of the year is a strong start," Mr Ohm said.

"2017 was an anomaly ... there were 110 listings during 2017, and 57 of them – just over half – were in the first six months."

James Frost has the full story here.

10:20am

The Australian sharemarket has dropped slightly lower at the open this morning.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is down 2 points or 0.03 per cent, at 6263.8.

CSL shares have dipped below $200 while the four major banks are also weighing. Wesfarmers and Woolworths are also down.

NIB Holdings is the index's worst performer, down 2.6 per cent, followed by Domino's Pizza down 2 per cent.

BHP Billiton is the market leader with a 2.5 per cent gain, followed by Rio Tinto up 2.3 per cent. South32 is also up, with a 2.2 per cent gain.

Resources are dominating the index's best performers. Independence Group is up 2.9 per cent as is Alumina.

9:59am

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The local sharemarket is set for a positive start to the session as global markets gained overnight, writes Kyle Rodda.

The markets were certainly more content with the world overnight, putting to the back of mind the events of last weekend and the challenging start to the week. The prevailing themes remained in major part a so-far-so-good earnings season on Wall Street, couple with the unfolding story of China's surprise stimulus program, announced on Monday.

Implied volatility retreated amidst this dynamic, with the VIX dropping (just) below 14, although some of the risk haven activity witnessed at the start of the week linger – the Japanese Yen is still in favour and US Treasuries appear to be holding onto a small risk premium.

Read the full 8@eight here.

9:38am

Here are the overnight market highlights:

SPI futures up 20 points or 0.3% to 6220 at about 7am AEST

AUD +0.5% to 74.15 US cents

On Wall St: Dow +0.8% S&P 500 +0.5% Nasdaq flat

In New York, BHP +4% Rio +3.9% Atlassian -2.9%

In Europe: Stoxx 50 +0.9% FTSE +0.7% CAC +1% DAX +1.1%

Spot gold flat at $US1224.79 an ounce at 2.59pm New York time

Brent crude +0.4% to $US73.35 a barrel

US oil +0.8% to $US68.46 a barrel

Iron ore -0.3% to $US65.57 a tonne

Dalian iron ore n/a

LME aluminium +0.7% to $US2084.5 a tonne

LME copper +2.7% to $US6295 a tonne

2-year yield: US 2.63% Australia 2.12%

5-year yield: US 2.82% Australia 2.33%

10-year yield: US 2.95% Australia 2.72% Germany 0.39%

Local data: Skilled vacancies June, Second quarter CPI; NZ trade June

Overseas data: German IFO index July; US new home sales June

9:19am

Magellan boss and Rich Lister Hamish Douglass is preparing for the possibility that the US 10-year Treasury yield breaks through 4 per cent in 12 to 18 months' time, sparking a 30 per cent sell-off in global equities, should the US Federal Reserve find itself surprised by resurgent inflation.

While that sounds dramatic, it's just as likely in the fund manager's view that the Fed keeps tightening methodically and bond yields rise to 4 per cent, but in an orderly fashion and without an inflationary scare.

Even so, Mr Douglass believes there is a strong case for being more tactical. He has increased his cash weighting in the Magellan Global Fund to 18 per cent, the highest since 2009.

"Only conservative investors sleep well," he says.

Vesna Poljak has the full story here.