Australian Stocks Slip, Banks Slide

Australian stock markets slipped today as a broad spell of weakness in global equities following a heavy overnight drop in the US indices hurt the sentiments. The DOW tumbled around 1.4% last night on continued trade war fears as US President Donald Trump said that he was not ready to make a trade deal with China. A modest spell of weakness in global metal prices and a correction in oil prices also weighed on Australian stocks though a fresh seven year high for Gold prices helped some miners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index slipped 21.80 points or 0.30 to 6568 today. The broader All Ordinaries Index is also down 32 points or 0.30% to 6648 after edging up yesterday. Fortescue mining soared 3.59% while Aurizon jumped around 3%. However, the major banks eased. National Australia Bank dropped 0.32%, Commonwealth Bank fell 0.60% while and ANZ Banking eased 0.55%.

Recent economic data has been downbeat. Australia service sector fell deeply into contraction in July with a Performance of Service Index score of 43.9, the latest survey from the Australian Industry Group revealed on Monday. That's down sharply from 52.2 in June and it slides well below the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. Individually, sales, employment, new orders, supplier deliveries, finished stocks and selling prices all were firmly in contraction territory, while capacity utilization, input prices and average wages expanded.

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