Markets Live: Banks drag on ASX 10:42am: Bonds' underwear owner Pacific Brands is in talks to sell off its shoes and licensed brands division. As foreshadowed by the AFR's Street Talk column, Pacific Brands has confirmed it is in discussions to sell its Brand Collective division, which owns the Volley and Hush Puppies labels, among others, and holds licences for clothing brands including Superdry and Mossimo. "The company confirms that it is in discussions regarding a potential sale of its Brand Collective business," Pacific Brands said in a statement this morning. Pacific Brands has confirmed it is in talks to sell off its shoes division, which includes... Hush Puppies. 10:28am: Competition boss Rod Sims says the federal government must rip up the rules that give the national broadband network monopoly protection before splitting up its divisions and selling them off. Mr Sims is set to make the recommendations during a wide-ranging speech to the NBN Rebooted event in Sydney on Monday. NBN Co's business case is propped up by legislation that stops rival telcos connecting users to new high-speed broadband networks. This boosts NBN Co's profitability so it can stay off the budget, while helping pay for services in the bush. But Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Mr Sims will become the latest in a series of leading competition experts, including his predecessors Graeme Samuel and Allan Fels, to call for NBN Co's monopoly powers to be clipped so its rivals can compete. "I can't see any reason to keep it in government ownership once it's built," he told Fairfax Media. It'll be better to have infrastructure competition than an infrastructure monopoly. Government should not limit competition in order to maximise the proceeds from the sale - there is too much at stake for that. Rod Sims, head of the ACCC. 10:19am: Shares are trading flat at the open, with banks erasing gains in miners and energy stocks, which have enjoyed a bit of a bump after oil prices ended last week up. The ASX 200 and All Ords are broadly level at 5453.9 and 5435.5, respectively. The big four banks are all lower as investors grow increasingly worried about the implications of the Murray Review and the prospect of tighter regulatory rules. The big miners are all ahead, as are the large energy plays - Woodside has gained 0.4 per cent and Santos 1 per cent. Gold miners are enjoying a good morning. 9:55am: House price inflation will decelerate further next year, weighing on construction activity and household sentiment, as real wage and income weakness continues to hold back economic growth, according to a cautionary assessment from the closely watched economist Saul Eslake. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch's senior Australian economist says the current slowdown in house price growth will persist into 2015, despite record-low lending rates. For the first time in the history of the series (to 1985), September's data showed that the value of investor loan approvals was greater than the value of loans to owner-occupiers (upgraders and first-home buyers). Source: BoA-Merrill Lynch 9:39am: Wotif.com exits the ASX today, following the acquisition of the online travel services company by global giant Expedia. 9:36am: Chinese traders are tipping iron ore will trade below $US60 a tonne next year because domestic property market woes show little sign of abating, a top UBS mining analyst was told. UBS will not adjust its price forecasts after collecting intelligence during a tour of China last week but says lows not seen since financial year 2009 are possible. Iron ore for delivery to the port of Qinqdao last traded at $US75.47, down 46 per cent since December last year. UBS mining analyst Glyn Lawcock says talk among steel mills and traders in China is that prices under $US60 a tonne is likely, largely because a weak Chinese property market is expected to persist in 2015. Last week, Citigroup said it had been "bearish but not bearish enough on iron ore prices, and slashed its forecast for the next two years to $US65 ($75) a tonne, from about $US80. ANZ added fuel to fears for the industry, predicting the commodity is unlikely to breach the $US100 mark again, period. A Morgan Stanley trip to China earlier this month, cited Chinese traders tipping iron ore will continue its dramatic crash to hit $US70 a tonne by the end of this year. Intelligence gathered from the UBS tour to China last week found iron ore traders expect a modest rally in the lead up for Christmas, before retreating to a lower average price next year than in 2014. The market was flooded with new supply this year but UBS, whose chief commodity analyst is Daniel Morgan, estimates a further 100 million tonnes of fresh supply could be introduced into the market next year, which is likely to weigh on price. China's property market will be a defining factor in 2015, after the government announced last month it would remove home purchase restrictions and discount mortgage rates for first home buyers, pushing home sales higher in October. But property developers need to reduce inventory before the property market starts pick up, which would drive increased steel demand, UBS said. China's steel production is expected to come in at about 800 million tonnes this year. In 2007, iron ore was trading at $US36 tonne, before its stratospheric rise to peaks of $US192 a tonne in February 2011. Chinese traders are even more pessimistic on iron ore prices than local analysts. Photo: Michelle Mossop 9:26am: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank chief Mike Hirst has endorsed targeted macroprudential measures by regulators to cool investor demand for property, arguing unusual action is warranted for extraordinary times. The global economy is just limping along and the G20 is addressing that. Because we're in that situation, however, a few countries have taken a new approach through quantitative easing, for example," Mr Hirst said. Given that fact it is reasonable for regulators to look at new ways of countering the unintended consequences of that. While Australia did not have to resort to printing money, it still had record low interest rates, which had driven investor demand. I think it is well worth considering more targeted responses if you don't want to impact the broader economy too heavily. Bendigo does not lend much to investors in inner city property and has lost market share in investment lending to its bigger rivals. Privately, many bankers say they are expecting some form of action from APRA on investor lending before the end of the year to try to reduce the risk of a sudden drop in inner city property prices, which could infect the rest of the economy. Mr Hirst's comments come after Fairfax Media reported that APRA bank stress tests conducted earlier this year found a severe downturn in the economy would wipe out all capital the biggest banks are holding against mortgages. 9:20am: Bumper payouts from the big four banks as well as from Telstra Corp, BHP Billiton and Woodside Petroleum mean the Australian equity market continues to punch above its weight as a contributor to a global pool of ­dividends, which is tipped to hit $US1.24 trillion ($1.4 trillion) in 2015. Worldwide, banks and oil producers are the biggest contributors to dividends, while the technology sector offers the fastest growth in dividends. "Globally, investors should reap $US133 billion more in dividends this year than last," Henderson Global Investors head of global equity income Alex Crooke said. The latest quarterly Henderson ­Global Dividend Index (HGDI), to be released on Monday, shows that listed companies worldwide paid out a total of $US288.1 billion in dividends over the three months to September 30, a new third-quarter record. The index now sits at 159.9 points, 10 per cent higher than one year earlier. This year will break a new record for global dividends. Despite the uncertain outlook for economic growth in 2015, we expect another good year of dividend growth, albeit at a slower rate than this year," Mr Crooke said. The HGDI report predicts that $US1.19 trillion in dividends will be paid out globally in 2014, with this figure tipped to rise to $US1.24 trillion in 2015. A look at the list of the world's top 20 dividend-paying stocks confirms that the S&P/ASX 200 Index punches well above its weight, relative to its size, as a high-yielding market. For the quarter ended September 30, four of the top 20 dividend-paying stocks were Australian. Westpac ranked fourth, followed by ANZ in ninth place. BHP took the 11th spot, while ­Telstra ranked 18th. 9:11am: The signing of a free-trade agreement between Australia and China this week could give the Australian dollar a boost against the greenback, but most economists still maintain it's longer term path is lower. After wrapping up hosting duties of the G20 summit in Brisbane, Prime Minister Tony Abbott is preparing to sign a free-trade agreement today with China's President Xi Jinping. HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham said while the details are unclear, the free-trade deal (FTA) should be good for Australia's economic growth and that should give the Australian dollar a lift. The challenge is we don't know what is in the FTA yet. But if it does include greater access for agriculture and services, producers and the relaxing of foreign investment in Australia, that combination should be somewhat supportive of the Australian dollar, in the short term," he said. He added that he still sees the currency at US82¢ by the end of next year. The Australian dollar is trading around US87.8¢ against the US dollar, from US86.37¢ at the start of last week, and US93¢ at the start of September. The local currency rose about 2¢ against the Japanese Yen last week and is buying ¥101.8, with investor confidence growing in the wake of the Bank of Japan's stimulus injection as it tries to encourage growth in its struggling economy. Global shares finished mixed at the end of last week. Japanese shares shot up 3.6 per cent over the five trading days as investors were also pleased at talk of a delay to the introduction of a 10 per cent increase in a sales tax. The most significant move over the last week has been the continuing fall in oil prices. They are down around 30 per cent since June to their lowest levels since 2009. "The fall in oil prices is likely to push average Australian petrol prices below $A1.30/litre which would represent a saving to the average family petrol bill since June of $8 a week," said AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver in a note on Saturday. 9:08am: Local shares, in line with their overseas counterparts, appear set to grind higher as investors lack any strong buy or sell signal, while China links its Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. SPI futures up 6 pts at 5475. AUD at 87.80 US cents, 102.13 Japanese yen, 69.91 Euro cents and 55.86 British pence On Wall St, S&P 500 flat, Dow -0.1%, Nasdaq +0.2% In Europe, Euro Stoxx 50 +0.1%, FTSE +0.3%, CAC +0.4%, DAX flat Spot gold jumps 2.3% to $US1188.75 an ounce Brent oil surges 2.5% to $US79.60 per barrel Iron ore slips 0.7% to $US75.47 per metric tonne Australia: motor vehicle sales New Zealand: performance services index, retail sales ex inflation Japan: Preliminary GDP Europe: ECB president Draghi speaks (overnight) Elders releases FY results Arrium AGM Estia Health expected to debut at $5.20/share, reports the AFR. RBC Capital Markets has a sector perform on APA Group and a price target of $7.75 a share as it reviews the investment case leading into a potential BG LNG pipeline acquisition. Deutsche Bank upgraded Monadelphous to a "hold" on valuation grounds and has a target price of $11.43 a share on the mining services group. 9:08am: Good morning and welcome to the Markets Live blog for Monday.