Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading notably lower on Wednesday, reversing the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 7,800 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors led by mining and energy stocks amid tumbling commodity prices. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 42.00 points or 0.54 percent to 7,787.70, after hitting a low of 7,829.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 44.40 points or 0.55 percent to 8,030.80. Australian stocks ended significantly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is declining more than 2 percent. Rio Tinto is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy is losing more than 1 percent and Origin Energy is declining 1.5 percent, while Santos and Woodside Energy are edging down 0.4 percent each. In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.3 percent, Zip is declining more than 3 percent, Xero is down almost 1 percent and WiseTech Global is losing more than 1 percent. Appen is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are losing almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging down 0.3 percent. ANZ Banking is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among gold miners, Resolute Mining, Gold Road Resources and Evolution Mining are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Newmont is losing almost 1 percent and Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.4 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.673 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Tuesday, with the major averages bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually ending the day narrowly mixed.

Despite the choppy trading, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 once again reached new record closing highs. While the Dow edged down 52.82 points or 0.1 percent to 39,291.97, the Nasdaq inched up 25.55 points or 0.1 percent to 18,429.29 and the S&P 500 crept up 4.13 points or 0.1 percent to 5,576.98.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index tumbled by 1.6 percent, the German DAX Index slumped by 1.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday, extending losses to a third straight session, amid concerns about the outlook for demand, and on reports that Hurricane Beryl did not cause any big damage to refineries and ports along the Gulf coast. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.92 or at $81.41 a barrel.