US Syria strike nod hurts Aussie banks Australian shares are weaker as a US Congressional nod to a military strike on Syria overwhelms news about local economic growth. Official figures showing a 0.6 per cent gross domestic product pace during the June quarter did little to boost the overall share market, with GDP figure in line with expectations. CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner said the US Senate's drafting of a bipartisan measure, imposing a 90-day deadline for a US air strike on Syria, was hurting banking stocks. "There's a general kind of, bit of increased risk premium being built in and there's some selling of equities generally," he said. The banks are possibly targeted. National Australia Bank subsequently lost 30 cents to $32.61, ANZ dropped 29 cents to $29.76, Westpac fell 24.5 cents to $31.695, and the Commonwealth Bank gave up 49 cents to $73.06. The mining giants were mixed, with BHP Billiton losing 32.5 cents to $35.495 but Rio Tinto gained 11 cents to $61.16 as iron ore miner Fortescue dropped 12 cents, or 2.64 per cent, to $4.42. Mr Spooner said uncertainly about Syria would continue to help gold and oil prices, but hinder commodities like copper. He added that the benign economic growth news was affecting defensive stocks like Telstra, as it signalled a change from easing to neutral for the Reserve Bank of Australia. "Those defensive yield stocks may see some selling if investors are a little bit less confident about further interest rate cuts as a consequence of the GDP," Mr Spooner said. Telstra was five cents lower at $4.85. The slide in the local market comes despite positive leads from Wall Street, where the S&P 500 finished 6.8 points, or 0.42 per cent, higher at 1639.77. At 1200 AEST on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 38.5 points, or 0.74 per cent, at 5,158.1 points. The broader All Ordinaries index was 35.9 points, or 0.69 per cent, lower at 5,153.0 points. The September share price index futures contract was 40 points lower at 5,150 points, with 13,569 contracts traded. National turnover was 562 million securities worth $1.5 billion.