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The S&P/ASX 200 closed down 0.36 per cent on Friday, a loss of 20.7 points taking the index down to 5774.6 points.

This ends the four day winning streak for the index.

The biggest winner of the day was Treasury Wine Estates, up 4.25 per cent.

Regis Resources was the biggest loser, falling 4.25 per cent.

The Australian dollar is on track to finish the week as the second-best Group of 10 currency in the world against the US dollar, advancing 1.3 per cent. That puts it behind only the Norwegian Krone's 1.8 per cent jump. Further back-pedalling from the US Federal Reserve on interest rate expectations and a US trade delegation's visit to Beijing helped set a more optimistic tone for the Australian dollar after touching a 10-year low the previous week. Westpac expects further Fed tightening and a steady RBA cash rate should see the Australian dollar finding support on dips towards US70¢ and finishing the first-quarter around US71¢.

ANZ Banking Group is Goldman Sachs's preferred bank stock based on the broker's view that it is the best positioned of the major banks in a slowing revenue environment helped by its cost outlook, which is the most favourable. Goldman also upgraded its recommendation on National Australia Bank to "buy". It forecasts 6.5 per cent earnings per share growth for the major banks in 2018-19, and a 7 per cent dividend yield. Among the main themes it identifies, slowing housing remains a "volume not an asset quality risk" despite Goldman's expectations of further house price declines in 2019.

Zinc prices fell on the understanding that Chinese zinc smelters will boost refined zinc supply this year, according to Commonwealth Bank analyst Vivek Dhar✓. He also finds that treatment charges for Chinese zincore ‑ which are paid to smelters ‑ have increased to the highest level since 2016 because of rising zinc mine supply. The metal is used to galvanise steel. Three-month forward zinc contracts traded on the London Metals Exchange are down 27 per cent over the past 12 months, to $US2,461 a tonne on Thursday.

Macquarie maintained its outperform rating for Treasury Wine Estates, as US wine competitor Constellation Brands expected weakness for wine and spirits business for the next quarter. Macquarie analysts said they were less concerned with the impact of Constellation's result on Treasury because non-premium wines appeared to be struggling more, which are not Treasury's focus, and depletions for Constellation appeared weaker than Treasury. Constellation said virtually all growth was being driven by products with a price point above $11. Analysts viewed this as positive for Treasury, given the company has a focus on premium products and has been " aggressively exiting lower-margin commercial volumes over the last couple of years".

Labor has united with superannuation funds to slam the Productivity Commission's principal recommendation for the government to set up a top 10 shortlist of default superannuation funds and has rejected a proposal to pause the slated increase in retirement contributions to 12 per cent of employee income.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen, who could be the treasurer in a few months and responsible for deciding policy responses to the commission's 31 recommendations, attacked the independent commission's call for the $600 billion default superannuation sector to be shifted outside of the industrial relations system.

Mr Bowen said it was vital superannuation fees were minimised and funds acted in the interests of workers, but rebuffed the idea for new employees entering the workforce to be nudged towards selecting their super fund from a top 10 shortlist chosen by government financial regulators.

John Kehoe and Joanna Mather report here.

The S&P/ASX 200 has lost the ground it gained in the morning, falling 0.23 per cent from where it opened to 5781.9 points, down 13.3 points.

The materials sector weighed down on the index, with BHP Group slipping 2.7 per cent.

JB Hi-fi was up 3.85 per cent, and Ansell was up 3.75 per cent.

Regis Resources has been the biggest loser so far today, falling 3.95 per cent.

Former financial regulators should be banned from sitting on the boards of banks and other institutions following revelations of conflicts of interest at the Hayne royal commission, says Deutsche Bank's banking analysts.

The inquiry had exposed how the mortgage product had evolved from a means to afford a home to "a high-return financial-credit product which fabricated both a source and store of chimerical wealth", Matt Wilson and Anthony Hoo said in a note to clients published on Thursday.

The extent to which the family home had been 'financialised' made regulators vulnerable to capture given "the broader economic and political impacts of their actions", they said.

Jonathan Shapiro with the full story here.

It was highly likely that Telstra chief executive Andy Penn would release a 5G blockbuster announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas given the high-speed mobile technology is at the centre of his 2022 strategy.

Penn has used his market power, which comes from controlling 70 per cent of the $42 billion in telecommunications revenues in Australia, to secure exclusive access to 5G commercial smartphones in the first half of this year.

Telstra won't reveal the names of the suppliers except to say they are from the "world's biggest brands". Telstra says the phones will seamlessly connect with Telstra's 200 5G-enabled sites around the country and the existing 4G network.

Chanticleer with the full story here.