Afternoon Report | ASX falls again; second Telstra fault
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Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report for Thursday, the 9th of July, 2026. I'm Michael Thompson, and every afternoon, we've got the five stories that happened today that you need to know about. Let's go. Story number one, the local share market fell for a fourth straight session as the conflict between the US and Iran escalated again. The S&P ASX 200 dropped 0.3% today to 8,763 points. as oil held near 78 US dollars a barrel. Donald Trump said the US had struck about 90 targets along Iran's coast in retaliation for attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Locally, materials were the weakest sector today. BHP, Rio Tinto, Goldmine and Newmont all lower. Pantoro Gold, that tumbled more than 10% after it missed production guidance.
Energy stocks did rise on higher oil prices. Woodside and Santos both advanced today while the banks were mixed. And construction and fit-out business, FDC Consolidated hit the boss today in the ASX's biggest IPO so far this year. Not a bad day, closed 12.3% higher. Story number two, Telstra says a second software fault left hundreds of customers unable to make triple zero calls during yesterday's national outage.
How did the ASX react to renewed US–Iran tensions and which sectors were hit?
Chief Financial Officer Michael Ackland said that the company had implemented a fresh fix after identifying a separate issue affecting emergency calls. Telstra conducted 639 welfare checks on customers whose triple zero calls failed and 170 of those were referred to police. At least seven needed emergency assistance. As we've discussed extensively over the last 24 hours, the original outage was attributed to malfunctioning time synchronization nodes in Telstra data centers in Sydney and Melbourne. Michael Ackland apologized again today saying that any missed emergency call was unacceptable. But Telstra says customers can now feel confident calling triple zero. Communications Minister Annika Wells has confirmed that the regulator will investigate the outage.
Story number three, the International Monetary Fund has downgraded its forecast for economic growth in Australia slightly, down to 1.9% for this calendar year. If correct, the slowdown would probably be welcomed by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which is trying to take the steam out of inflation. Not necessarily welcomed by businesses though, a 1.9% growth rate down from the previous forecast of 2% would rank Australia's growth rate 18th out of 30 large countries modelled by the IMF. Other forecasters warning of slower growth include the Reserve Bank and Commonwealth Bank. Story number four, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has met with controversial British anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson during a political trip to the UK.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, posted a photo of the pair online and said that he would release a podcast of their discussion. In a social media post, he described... Pauline Hanson as, quote, one of the bravest ladies on the planet, fearless, relentless, consistent, and hopefully the next leader of her nation. The meeting comes as Hanson faces continued scrutiny over her comments on multiculturalism after saying that Australia should be a monocultural society during her recent National Press Club appearance. One Nation has slipped a little in recent polling after a pretty strong surge earlier this year. Robinson, for his part, has previously been denied an Australian visa and has a string of criminal convictions.
His recent interview with Karl Stefanovic triggered the chain of events that led to Stefanovic leaving Nine. And finally, story number five, the World Health Organization is predicting global cancer cases to rise sharply by 2050 and A new report by the WHO found about 20.6 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2024. That figure, though, is projected to reach 35 million a year by 2050, which is an increase of about 67%. The rise is being driven by aging populations, known risk factors such as smoking and alcohol, and also better cancer detection. Survival rates are improving, particularly in wealthier countries.
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