Australian Market Sharply Lower

The Australian stock market is sharply lower on Wednesday, recouping the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying above the 7,400 level, following the broadly negative cues overnight from Wall Street, with weakness across most sectors, particularly materials and technology, on the back of tumbling commodity prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 86.00 points or 1.14 percent to 7,441.90, after hitting a low of 7,437.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 90.50 points or 1.16 percent to 7,742.70. Australian stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, OZ Minerals is losing almost 3 percent and Mineral Resources is down almost 1 percent, while Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals and BHP Group are declining almost 2 percent each.

Oil stocks are weak. Origin Energy is edging down 0.3 percent and Woodside Petroleum is declining more than 1 percent, while Santos and Beach energy are losing almost 2 percent each.

In the tech space, WiseTech Global is losing more than 2 percent, Xero is declining almost 3 percent, Block is plunging more than 6 percent, Appen is down more than 3 percent and Zip is declining almost 5 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and Commonwealth Bank are edging up 0.1 percent each, while National Australia Bank are edging down 0.2 percent. Westpac is flat.

Among gold miners, Gold Road Resources, Evolution Mining, Northern Star Resources and Newcrest Mining are all losing more than 2 percent each, while Resolute Mining is slipping 1.5 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.758 on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved significantly lower over the course of the trading day on Tuesday, offsetting the upward move seen over the two previous sessions. The major averages all moved to the downside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq posting a particularly steep loss.

Selling pressure intensified in the final hour of trading, dragging the major averages down to new lows for the session. While the Nasdaq plunged 328.39 points or 2.3 percent to 14,204.17, the S&P 500 tumbled 57.52 points or 1.3 percent to 4,525.12 and the Dow slid 280.70 points or 0.8 percent to 34,641.18.

The major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.72 percent, while Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 slid 0.65 percent and 1.28 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures pared early gains and drifted lower on Tuesday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to a surge in coronavirus cases in China. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended down by $1.32 or about 1.3 percent at $101.96 a barrel, after having climbed above $105.00 a barrel earlier in the day.

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