Australian Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly lower on Tuesday, snapping the five-session winning streak, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying below the 7,000 mark, following the mildly negative cues from global markets overnight, as traders await the Reserve Bank interest rate decision later in the day, with the RBA tipped to raise interest rates by another 50 basis points to a six-year high.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 24.90 points or 0.36 percent to 6,968.10, after hitting a low of 6,944.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 26.80 points or 0.37 percent to 7,186.20. Australian stocks closed significantly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto, and Mineral Resources are losing almost 1 percent each, while BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are declining almost 2 percent each. OZ Minerals is down 2.5 percent.

Oil stocks are lower, with Beach energy and Origin Energy losing more than 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy and Santos are down almost 1 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 3 percent and Zip is surging almost 8 percent, while WiseTech Global and Xero are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each. Appen plunging almost 27 percent after it said it sees significantly worse than expected results for the first half and warned of an uncertain outlook.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Newcrest Mining is edging up 0.4 percent, Resolute Mining is gaining almost 2 percent Northern Star Resources is adding almost 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is up more than 1 percent, while Evolution Mining is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging up 0.5 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.2 percent.

In economic news, the Reserve Bank of Australia will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates. The RBA is expected to hike its benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points, from 1.35 percent to 1.85 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.701 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a sluggish performance on Monday, the first trading session of August, and ended slightly weak after recording their best month in the Year in July. Fairly encouraging corporate earnings updates helped limit market's downside.

The major averages all ended in negative territory despite seeing a brief spell in positive territory. The Dow ended with a loss of 46.73 points or 0.14 percent at 32,798.40, after moving between 32,640.79 and 32,972.03. The S&P 500 ended lower by 11.66 points or 0.28 percent at 4,118.63, while the Nasdaq settled at 12,368.98, down 21.71 points or 0.18 percent from the previous close.

The major European markets all also showed moves to the downside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended 0.13 percent down, France's CAC 40 ended lower by 0.18 percent and Germany's DAX edged down 0.03 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday amid concerns about outlook for energy demand and ahead of this week's OPEC+ meeting. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended lower by $4.73 or 4.8 percent at $93.89 a barrel.