We'll have to wrap things up there for today.

Thank you for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow to catch you up on developments in global markets.

As we speak, Iran and Israel are trading missile strikes again.

Brent crude futures have actually fallen in the last hour or so, down 0.2% to US$73.02 a barrel.

As mentioned earlier, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers will be speaking at the National Press Club tomorrow, laying out his plan for Labor's "Second Term Economic Agenda".

Until tomorrow, take care of yourselves.

Among the top performers today were gold and uranium miners.

Bellevue Gold gained 6.5 cent (+6.99%), to 99.5 cents, Deep Yellow gained 8.5 cents (+5.41%), to $1.65, and Paladin Energy gained 29 cents (+3.98%) to $7.57.

Among the worst performers were James Hardie which lost $1.24 (-3.11%) to $38.68, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation, which lost 77 cents (-2.22%), to $33.94, and LendLease Group, which lost 10 cents (-1.77%) at $5.55.

• ASX 200: -0.08% to 8,541 points (close)
• Australian dollar: +0.21% to 65.35 US cents 
• Dow Jones: +0.8% to 42,515 points
• S&P 500: +0.9% to 6,033 points
• Nasdaq: +1.5% to 19,701 points
• FTSE: +0.3% to 8,875 points 
• EuroStoxx: +0.4% to 546 points 
• Spot gold: +0.2% to $US3,389/ounce 
• Brent crude: +0.2% to $US73.39/barrel 
• Iron ore: $US95.23/tonne 
• Bitcoin: -1.68% to $US107,009

Prices current around 4:25pm AEST. 

Live updates on the major ASX indices:

Trading has closed on Australia's stock exchange for the day, and the ASX200 index has shed 7.1 points (-0.08%) to finish at 8,541 points.

Catherine King, the minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, and Local Government, has released a statement on Regional Express (airlines).

She says the voluntary administrators for Regional Express Holdings Limited (Administrators Appointed) (Rex) will today announce their intention to apply to the Federal Court of Australia to extend the convening period of the voluntary administration to December 2025.

She says the government's existing loan of up to $80 million provided to the administrators it still available, and it will extend another $30 million to administrators if required.

"The sale process is progressing positively, with the administrators having narrowed the bidding field, and this would allow the administrators additional time to secure a market-led solution," she says. 

"The decision to grant an extension is a matter for the Federal Court.

"If approved, the Albanese Government will continue to assist regional communities in maintaining access to critical aviation during this time by extending the ticket guarantee on regional routes. 

"The existing loan of up to $80 million provided to the administrators – which is yet to be fully expended – would remain available to ensure the airline can continue to operate.

"In order to support the extension, if an application is granted by the Federal Court, additional financing of up to $30 million from the Australian Government to the administrators will also be made available should it be required to keep regional routes in the air until December.

"The Government continues to work closely with the Administrators during their sale process for Rex. 

"Further details of the bid process cannot be disclosed at this stage due to ongoing negotiations and commercial confidentiality.

"The Australian Government is not a bidder in the sale process, but is undertaking necessary work on contingencies should a market-led solution not be achieved. 

"Any potential government support for a successful bidder will be conditional on commitments to provide an ongoing, reasonable level of service to regional and remote communities, the need to provide value for money to taxpayers and good governance.

"The Albanese Government remains committed to maintaining access to aviation services for regional and remote communities that are essential to their health, education and economic outcomes, and we recognise the critical role of the Rex network to local economies."

At a doorstop in Canberra earlier today, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was also asked about the work-from-home issue.

As colleague Dan Ziffer posted about earlier this morning, Ewin Hannan in The Australian has revealed confidential proposals from employer lobby group Ai Group that would "trade off" the working from home clause.

His article suggested the group's offer to the Fair Work Commission is that in return for employees working remotely, people in the clerks award could lose key entitlements like overtime, penalty rates and meal breaks.

In his doorstop this morning, a journalist asked Mr Chalmers if he saw work-from-home as a productivity issue, and Mr Chalmers replied:

"I'm a supporter of work from home," he said. 

"I think it's an important way to provide the kind of flexibility, which is key to a modern economy and a modern labour market.

"Obviously, it needs to be within reason. It needs to work for employees and employers and the best place for that to be worked out is at the workplace level.

"But work from home is a really important part of ensuring that more people can participate in our world beating labour market.

"One of the things I'm proudest of over the course of the last few years is that we've been able to maintain very low unemployment, very high labour force participation, get real wages growing again at a time that we're getting inflation down as well.

"Work from home has role to play in our economy. 

"I think we saw in the course of the last election campaign what the Australian people think about the work from home opportunity. It needs to make sense. It needs to be within reason.

"This is a good example, I think, of where the union movement and employers can work together to make sure that we are creative and nourishing the kind of labour market which is so important to a dynamic, modern economy like ours," he said.

With just under an hour to go before trading closes for the day, the ASX200 index is down 21.2 points (-0.25%).

• ASX 200: -0.2% to 8,531 points
• Australian dollar: -0.03% to 65.20 US cents 
• Dow Jones: +0.8% to 42,515 points
• S&P 500: +0.9% to 6,033 points
• Nasdaq: +1.5% to 19,701 points
• FTSE: +0.3% to 8,875 points 
• EuroStoxx: +0.4% to 546 points 
• Spot gold: +0.22% to $US3,390/ounce 
• Brent crude: +0.5% to $US73.59/barrel 
• Iron ore: $US95.23/tonne 
• Bitcoin: -1.31% to $US107,411

Prices current around 2:40pm AEST. 

Live updates on the major ASX indices:

As widely expected, the Bank of Japan has decided today to keep its short-term interest rates at 0.5%.

It also said it will start slowing the pace of Japanese government bond purchases from April next year.

It reiterated that it will stick to its plan to keep reducing its monthly purchases of government bonds by about 400 billion yen per quarter.

Then, from April next year, it says it will slow the pace of those cuts to 200 billion yen per quarter, which it will keep doing until March 2027.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers was also grilled by Sky's Kieran Gilbert about whether the government has concerns that might see it place conditions on Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation and Carlyle's joint $36 billion-plus bid for Santos, or block the takeover altogether.

However, as he did on the ABC's Afternoon Briefing program yesterday, Chalmers refused to be drawn.

"Transactions this big go through a number of stages and I will listen to the advice of the Foreign Investment Review Board, but I won't pre-empt that advice. There are good reasons not to do that," he said.

"I do understand it's a big transaction in a sensitive area and I'll weigh up all of the arguments and I'll listen to the FIRB, but I can't get engaged in a kind of a running commentary about the sorts of issues that we're factoring in.

"Obviously, the national economic interest is the primary lens through which the Foreign Investment Review Board makes its advice to me."

Gilbert asked whether national security is also a key consideration.

"We've made it clear over a long period of time that those considerations of security, economic security and national security, are very closely intertwined and so the Foreign Investment Review Board weighs all of that up," Chalmers responded.

"They weigh up all of the considerations, all of the viewpoints, they provide advice to me in a very professional, very considered and methodical way."

It is worth remembering that former treasurer Peter Costello knocked back Shell's $10 billion bid for Woodside in 2001, so this deal getting federal approval is no fait accompli.

The market senses that, with Santos shares at $7.73, about 13% below the current offer price from ADNOC and Carlyle, which factors in uncertainty over the deal proceeding and the risk of conditions attached to it which might result in the bidders lowering their offer.

Our South Australian colleagues had this coverage of their state government's view on the takeover bid.