Australian shares have been boosted by more record highs on Wall Street ahead of earnings season,  although business confidence has dropped amid COVID lockdowns.

However, the All Ordinaries came off its intraday highs on the prospect of a longer lockdown in New South Wales amid more coronavirus cases. 

By 12:50pm AEST the All Ordinaries index increased 0.4 per cent to 7,634, with most sectors higher.

The ASX 200 index rose 0.3 per cent to 7,357, with industrial stocks and miners leading the gains, but banks ran out of steam.

Real estate and education stocks were weaker.

Aerial mapping firm Nearmap rose 15.9 per cent on an improved annual contract forecast thanks to record growth in North America.

Also rising was mining contractor NRW Holdings (+5.8pc).

Incitec Pivot gained 8.6 per cent after saying it would restructure its manufacturing model from global to regional.

Platinum Asset Management fell 6.7 per cent after seeing an outflow of funds of $167 million in June. 

Also going down were real estate investment trust Charter Hall Group (-2.3pc) and property developer Stockland (-1.7pc).

Shares in Berkeley Energia plunged by half after a Spanish regulator blocked its planned uranium mine.

HelloFresh offered $0.93 a share, or $125 million, for ready made meal firm YouFoodz, which surged 78 per cent today in response.

Almond grower Select Harvest jumped 14.7 per cent after forecasting record crops in 2021.

The Australian dollar gained 0.3 per cent to around 75 US cents.

Business confidence falls in June 

Increasing coronavirus cases and lockdowns saw business confidence and conditions pull back from record highs last month.

National Australia Bank's latest monthly survey found that business conditions slid 12 points to 24 in June and business confidence fell 9 points to 11. 

Business confidence took a hit, particularly in New South Wales and Queensland, and confidence slumped in the recreational and personal services industry because of social distancing and lockdowns. 

But confidence overall remained around twice the long term average.

The lockdown in Victoria saw it lead the fall in business conditions according to NAB chief economist Alan Oster.

"The decline in conditions was broad-based across states but led by a significant decline in Victoria coming off the back of the lockdown that started in late May but was eased, in a series of steps, over June.

"While, there is less fiscal support around, businesses conditions have been strong in recent months and hopefully the recovery continues."

APRA tells banks to prepare for negative interest rates 

The banking regulator has told financial institutions to have a plan by the end of April next year to deal with the prospect of zero or negative interest rates.

Negative interest rates occur when depositors are charged a fee to park their money in a bank and borrowers receive interest for borrowing.

The move is encourage businesses and individuals to invest, lend or spend rather than keep their money in the bank. 

The Reserve Bank had said repeatedly that a negative cash rate was highly unlikely in Australia.

However, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said the possibility of negative interest rates in the future could not be ruled out.

"It is possible that other interest rates determined in the financial markets could fall to zero or below zero at any time," APRA said.

It said that for some financial institutions, negative or zero interest rates would pose "operational challenges".

"Insufficient preparation for the possibility of zero and negative interest rates could therefore have an adverse impact on an ADI, its customers and the markets in which it operates," APRA said.

CBA, ANZ and Westpac were in the red at lunchtime.

Bank of South Pacific found to have breached anti money laundering laws 

The Australian listed Pacific bank, BSP Financial Group, has gone into a trading halt pending an announcement. 

That is after Papua New Guinea's financial regulator found "detailed and compelling" evidence of contravention of the country's anti-money laundering laws. 

Bank of South Pacific is Papua New Guinea's biggest bank.

BSP has previously denied the allegations. 

Elon Musk accused of misleading investors

US stocks have reached new record highs boosted by electric car maker Tesla, despite investors accusing Elon Musk of misleading them. 

Tesla shares rose 4.4 per cent as founder Elon Musk appeared in court and insisted he did not control the electric car maker.

He was on the stand defending the company's 2016 acquisition of solar panel firm SolarCity, which was founded by his cousins. 

The legal case was brought by union pension funds and investment managers. 

They accuse Mr Musk of depleting Telsa's assets with the $US2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) stock deal for SolarCity.

The investors want the court to order Mr Musk, one of the world's richest people, to repay Tesla the amount it spent on the deal. 

Mr Musk owned a 22 per cent stake in the solar panel firm at the time and investors alleged the deal was aimed at bailing out his stake in the company. 

Mr Musk told the court also he did not enjoy being the boss of Tesla. 

Musk calls lawyer a 'bad human being'

Mr Musk also called Randall Baron, the attorney for the shareholders, a "bad human being".

Mr Baron asked if the board vetted the 'Technoking' title Mr Musk gave himself in March.

"I think I'm funny." 

Mr Musk is accused of dominating board discussions over the deal, pushing Tesla to pay more for SolarCity and misleading shareholders. 

The Tesla boss said he was not part of the board committee that negotiated the deal. 

Tesla directors settled allegations from the same lawsuit last year for $US60 million ($80 million).

Wall Street record highs

Wall Street's main indexes closed at the highest on record amid the start of the second-quarter profit reporting season.

Financial stocks, communication services and real estate boosted the S&P 500 index. 

The S&P 500 banks index climbed ahead of quarterly earnings reports this week from major banks, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. 

Investors will closely watch quarterly reports for early clues on the how long the US economic recovery may last.

The S&P 500 has rallied about 17 per cent so far this year.

with some investors questioning how long Wall Street's rally may last and concerned about a potential downturn.

 "Earnings season is going to be warmly greeted as an opportunity for existing biases to be confirmed," warned Mike Zigmont from Harvest Volatility Management in New York.

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is due to appear before Congress on Wednesday and Thursday for his views on inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 0.4 per cent to end at 34,996, while the S&P 500 also gained almost 0.4 per cent to 4,385.

The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.2 per cent to 14,733.

All three indexes closed at their highest levels ever.

Virgin Galactic Holdings tumbled 17.3 per cent after the space tourism company said it may sell up to $US500 million worth of shares, a day after the company completed its first fully crewed test flight into space with billionaire founder Sir Richard Branson on board. 

Brent crude fell 0.5 per cent to $US75.20 a barrel.

Spot gold fell 0.1 per cent to $US1805.87 an ounce. 

ABC/Reuters