Good morning and happy Friday! It’s July 5, and I’m here to guide you through the first half of the day’s business and finance news.

First up, there’s very little news to bring you from overnight where Wall Street is concerned — the US markets were shut for Independence Day.

Instead, the focus has been on the UK, where its share market rallied as voters headed to the polls for its election.

The FTSE gained 0.9% at the close of trade to 8,241 points, on expectations the Labour Party would win a landslide majority in the UK.

As for where that leaves us locally, the ASX is set to slip when trading gets underway a little later this morning, with futures down 0.2% to 7,799 points as of 7:40am AEST.

If you haven’t already, go grab a coffee while I hold the fort, and let’s see what the day has in store.

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