Australian Market Notably Lower

The Australian stock market is notably lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying below the 7,200 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged by weakness across most sectors, led by mining and energy stocks amid weaker commodity prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 27.00 points or 0.38 percent to 7,169.60, after hitting a low of 7,162.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 27.10 points or 0.37 percent to 7,367.90. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto, Mineral Resources and Fortescue Metals are losing almost 1 percent each, while BHP Group is down more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy is losing almost 1 percent, while Beach energy and Santos are edging down 0.4 to 0.5 percent each. Origin Energy is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 2 percent and Appen is slipping more than 4 percent, while Xero and WiseTech Global are down almost 1 percent each. Zip is gaining almost 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking, National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is declining almost 2 percent and Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent, while Newcrest Mining, Resolute Mining and Gold Road Resources are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.646 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks regained some ground over the course of the trading day on Tuesday but still closed modestly lower after coming under pressure early in the session. The major averages all finished the day in the red, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq falling to its lowest closing level in almost a month.

The major averages remained stuck in negative territory going into the close. The Dow fell 106.57 points or 0.3 percent to 34,517.73, the Nasdaq dipped 32.05 points or 0.2 percent to 13,678.19 and the S&P 500 slipped 9.58 points or 0.2 percent to 4,443.95.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the German DAX Index fell by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index both inched up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Tuesday after posting gains in the three previous sessions to touch a 10-month high. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended lower by $0.28 or 0.3 percent at $91.20 a barrel.

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