Australian Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - Australian stock market is slightly lower in choppy trading on Wednesday, reversing the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 8,000 mark, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in energy and financial stocks partially offset by gains in mining stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 13.90 points or 0.17 percent to 7,998.00, after hitting a low of 8,000.60 and a high of 8,024.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 8.40 points or 0.10 percent to 8,208.60. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent, Rio Tinto is adding more than 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is advancing more than 2 percent. Mineral Resources is skyrocketing more than 17 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Origin Energy is edging down 0.4 percent, Santos is losing more than 1 percent, Woodside Energy is declining almost 2 percent and Beach energy is down almost 1 percent. In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is edging up 0.3 percent and Zip is gaining more than 1 percent, while WiseTech Global is edging down 0.4 percent and Xero is declining almost 1 percent. Appen is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is losing more than 1 percent, while National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are down almost 1 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are advancing more than 2 percent each, while Gold Road Resources is adding almost 3 percent and Newmont is gaining more than 1 percent. Northern Star Resources is losing more than 2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.665 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Tuesday but managed to end the day mostly higher. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 added to the strong gains posted during Monday's session, although the narrower Dow bucked the uptrend.

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 saw further upside going into the close, reaching new highs for the session. The Nasdaq climbed 141.28 points or 0.8 percent to 17,025.88 and the S&P 500 rose 24.47 points or 0.5 percent to 5,495.52, but the Dow dipped 92.63 points or 0.2 percent to 40,736.96.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped 1.0 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.8 percent and the French CAC 40 Index slipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices slumped on Tuesday, ahead of the inflation data and on concerns over the health of the global economy. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery stumbled $2.43 or 3.54 percent to finish at $66.28 per barrel.