ASX Today Live News & Analysis

The Australian share market has dropped slightly as traders' attention shifts from the conflict in the Middle East to US President Donald Trump's looming deadline for reciprocal tariffs.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index on Thursday fell 8.4 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 8,550.8, while the broader All Ordinaries dropped 6.3 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 8,773.6.

IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said that the ASX200 had returned to narrow daily ranges of low volumes characteristic of last week's trading pattern.

He noted the quiet session for the ASX followed a dull one on Wall Street as Middle East tensions faded into the background.

The focus of market participants is returning to Donald Trump's trade war, with July 9 the next deadline for countries including Australia to strike a deal with the US following the mercurial American president's April 9 declaration of a 90-day pause on his reciprocal tariffs.

Most of the ASX's 11 sectors weren't making big moves on Thursday either. The exception was technology, which dropped 2.1 per cent amid a big fall for its second-biggest component, Xero.

The Kiwi cloud accounting platform dropped 5.3 per cent to a four-week low of $184 after completing a $1.85 billion capital raising to help fund its $3.9 billion acquisition of US payments firm Melio.

Xero CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy said the combination was a "incredibly exciting opportunity" to create a market-leading accounting and payments offering that supported Xero's US ambitions.

The heavyweight mining sector was up 0.2 per cent with losses for goldminers and gains for miners of lithium and other commodities.

Northern Star slipped 2.3 per cent, while Pilbara climbed 5.6 per cent and Mineral Resources rose 3.6 per cent.

The iron ore giants had a quiet day, with BHP flat at $36.12, Rio Tinto edging 0.1 per cent lower at $104.19 and Fortescue rising 0.3 per cent to $14.93.

In the financial sector, the big four banks finished mixed.

ANZ gained 2.2 per cent to $29.74 and Westpac rose 0.1 per cent to $34.57, while NAB dipped 0.4 per cent to $39.89 and Commonwealth Bank dropped 0.4 per cent to $190.71 after closing at an all-time high on Wednesday.

In healthcare, Neuren Pharmaceuticals climbed 6.1 per cent to $13.31 after its potential treatment for a neurodevelopmental condition called Pitt Hopkins syndrome received a US patent.

In micro caps, Locate Technologies continued to soar after the real-time tracking delivery company announced at the start of the week it had invested more of its corporate treasury in Bitcoin.

The Locate2u and Zoom2u platform operator said on Monday it had spent $A626,240 buying four more Bitcoin, on top of the six Bitcoin purchased about four weeks ago.

Locate Technologies shares rose 38.9 per cent to 25 cents on Thursday and are up 117.4 per cent this week.

In currency, the Australian dollar was at a nine-day high against the greenback, buying 65.31 US cents, from 64.99 US cents at 5pm on Wednesday.

ON THE ASX:

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished Thursday down 8.4 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 8,550.8.

The broader All Ordinaries dropped 6.3 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 8,773.6

The NZX 50 added 19.09 points (0.15%) to 12,480.05 while the Nikkei gained 642.51 points (1.62%) at the time of writing, to be closed at 39,584.58