Australian Market Significantly Lower

The Australian stock market is significantly lower on Friday, giving up some of the gains in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling to nearly the 7,100 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors, led by technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 72.10 points or 1.00 percent to 7,110.00, after hitting a low of 7,091.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 74.30 points or 1.00 percent to 7,326.30. Australian markets ended notably higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing 1.5 percent, while Mineral Resources, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are declining almost 2 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Origin Energy is edging down 0.2 percent, while Santos and Woodside Energy are down more than 1 percent each. Beach energy is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and Xero are losing almost 4 percent each, while Zip is declining almost 3 percent, WiseTech Global is slipping almost 6 percent and Appen is down more than 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are all losing almost 1 percent each.

Gold miners are mixed. Northern Star Resources and Resolute Mining are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Evolution Mining and Newcrest Mining are losing almost 1 percent each. Gold Road Resources is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.642 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading session on Thursday after failing to sustain an initial move to the upside. The major averages all showed significant moves to the downside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the pullback.

The major averages finished the day just off their lows of the session. The Nasdaq plunged 257.06 points or 1.9 percent to 13,463.97, the S&P 500 tumbled 59.70 points or 1.4 percent to 4,376.31 and the Dow slid 373.56 points or 1.1 percent to 34,099.42.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index edged up 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell 0.4 percent and the German DAX Index slid by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher Thursday on expectations that Saudi Arabia will extend its production cut into the next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.16 or 0.2 percent at $79.05 a barrel.

Market Analysis