Australian Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading modestly lower on Thursday, adding to the losses in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,900 level, with gains in iron ore miners and financial partially offset by weakness in technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 34.10 points or 0.38 percent to 8,892.10, after hitting a low of 8,876.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 37.20 points or 0.40 percent to 9,181.60. Australian stocks ended significantly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Rio Tinto is adding almost 1 percent and Mineral Resources is jumping almost 9 percent on upbeat results and record iron ore shipments.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy and Santos are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent. Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Appen are declining almost 5 percent each, while Xero, WiseTech Global and Zip are losing almost 2 percent each.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.5 percent each, while Westpac and Commonwealth Bank are gaining almost 1 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is edging down 0.2 percent, Resolute Mining is declining more than 3 percent and Genesis Minerals is down more than 1 percent, while Northern Star Resources is edging up 0.1 percent and Newmont is adding more than 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.659 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw substantial volatility in late-day trading on Wednesday after turning in a strong performance throughout much of the trading session. The major averages showed wild swings back and forth across the unchanged line before closing mixed.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 130.98 points or 0.6 percent to a new record closing high of 23,958.47, the S&P 500 edged down 0.30 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,890.59 and the Dow fell 74.37 points or 0.2 percent to 47,632.00.

The major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent and the German DAX Index slid by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices bounced higher on Wednesday after a report from the Energy Information Administration showed a steep drop by U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.31 or 0.5 percent at $60.46 per barrel.