Late selloff leads ASX to flat finish

The news: The benchmark ASX 200 scraped to keep its October streak alive, weathering a late afternoon selloff to finish 0.04% higher at 7091.00 on Thursday. The Aussie dollar is back at 64.2 US cents after briefly dipping below 64 cents overnight. Oil prices have continued to ease after spiking following the weekend conflict's in Israel. Executives from PwC faced a heated bout of questioning at a senate inquiry into integrity in the consulting sector.

The numbers: By sector, health care stocks were down 4.5% shortly before the close, led by CSL (-5.9%) and Resmed (-5.1%). Financials were up 0.9%, with the big four banks all lifting more than a percentage point. Real estate finished 1% stronger.

The context: UK GDP figures are due at 5pm AEDT today, with analysts expecting a modest 0.2% uptick after falling half a per cent last month. US CPI and unemployment data will be released overnight and China CPI data will follow tomorrow at 12:30pm AEDT.