Life360 tumbled 5.6 per cent to close at a five-month low of $32.71.
WiseTech, Xero and NextDC were all off between 2 per cent and 3 per cent.
Santos and Woodside dropped about 2 per cent to close at $6.11 and $23.99, respectively.
Vicinity Centres and Scentre Group finished down about 1 per cent at $2.51 and $4.13, respectively.
JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman eased to $93.03 and $7.01, respectively.
Westpac down 1.1 per cent to $38.48.
ANZ 0.4 per cent to $36.11.
National Australia Bank added 0.1 per cent at $42.24.
Commonwealth Bank closed flat at $155.13.
Qantas rallied 2.9 per cent to $10.09.
DroneShield went up 22.2 per cent to $2.81 after the defence company secured a $49.6 million contract to supply a military customer.
REA Group fell 1.7 per cent to $185.8 on news that Google will display real estate ads.
Crypto
The UK financial regulator has published proposals to regulate for the first time many areas of the crypto market, including rules for listing digital assets, restrictions on insider trading and capital requirements for the fast-growing sector.
Commodities
Brent fell as much as 1% to trade at $59.96 deepening a loss for the year.
West Texas Intermediate crude was trading at $US56.52 a barrel, or 0.5 per cent.
Economy
Markets are suggesting a one-in-four chance of an Australian rate rise in February, and expect 38 basis points of tightening by Christmas next year.
Earlier falls in U.S. Treasury yields reverse, with yields trading steady in midday European trade ahead of key labor market data.
Gilt yields rise after flash U.K. purchasing managers’ surveys for December came in better than expected.
The 10-year German Bund yield falls after Germany’s weaker-than-expected flash estimate purchasing managers index.
Business
ANZ asked law firm Allens to investigate one of the bank’s directors, former senior bureaucrat Jane Halton, after receiving complaints that she had made a derogatory remark about a senior employee and a consultant while they were on a board education trip in the United States last year. ($AFR)
AustralianSuper chief investment officer Mark Delaney will depart the $400 billion pension giant after more than 20 years, a period in which he helped transform the fund, and its predecessor Superannuation Trust of Australia, into the country’s biggest asset manager and a global investment powerhouse. ($AFR)
Star Entertainment chief executive Steve McCann will step down from his position as the new owners of the struggling casino operator take control and attempt to turn around its finances. ($AFR)
Rio Tinto says it will spend hundreds of millions of dollars preparing the way for the development of the country’s next major iron ore mine, a project it hopes will underpin the next generation of its Pilbara operations. ($AFR)
Mining companies are holding close to $180 billion worth of infrastructure assets and will increasingly sell stakes in power stations, pipelines and desalination plants as a way of bolstering cash flows, say industry analysts. ($AFR)
Monzo chief executive TS Anil was asked to step down by the fintech’s board amid concerns over the pace of its international expansion and his long-term commitment to the business after a potential stock market listing. ($FT)
PayPal has applied to become a bank in the US, the latest fintech seeking to capitalise on the Trump administration’s more permissive approach to financial industry oversight. ($FT)
Deal Flow
The NSW government and its private capital partners at Ausgrid are gearing up to launch an auction of its smart metering business in a deal that could spell a blockbuster payday for the $25 billion-plus poles-and-wires giant. ($AFR)
KTEK Systems, a supplier of airframes for combat drones to defence manufacturers in the US, European Union and Israel, is eyeing a 2026 ASX listing after finalising its $2.5 million convertible note seed round. ($AFR)
Westgold Resources has acquired a 19.9 per cent stake in Alicanto Minerals, a listed junior that on Monday struck a deal to buy WA’s Mt Henry gold mine from the bigger player’s sale of non-core assets. ($AFR)
Insight’s funds, led by its London-based head of secured finance, Shaheer Guirguis, have committed to providing up to $100 million in wholesale funding to Midkey. ($AFR)
Shell chief executive Wael Sawan and his top lieutenant quashed an internal proposal to buy rival BP this year, after which the company’s head of mergers and acquisitions left the business. ($FT)
The Canadian government has greenlit the $60bn Anglo Teck mega-merger, clearing a key hurdle for the companies to form one of the world’s largest copper producers as demand for the industrial metal surges. ($FT)
Kimmeridge has submitted a $6bn offer to buy Ascent Resources, the gas driller at the centre of a legal dispute in which a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund accused a US private equity group of self-dealing. ($FT)
Independent Research
Household sentiment has fallen 9 per cent in December, as the recent uptick in inflation puts it back on the radar of cost of living conscious consumers.
Opinion
Payden & Rygel portfolio manager Eric Souders says global bond markets are entering a markedly bifurcated phase, with the US Federal Reserve easing while other major central banks lean toward further tightening.
