Australian Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading slightly lower on Thursday, giving up some of the slight gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying well below the 8,200 level, with weakness in iron ore miners and financial stocks partially offset by gains in gold miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 10.70 points or 0.13 percent to 8,167.60, after hitting a low of 8,154.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 5.20 points or 0.06 percent to 8,394.60. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is down more than 1 percent and Rio Tinto is edging down 0.3 percent, while BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are losing almost 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos, Origin Energy and Beach energy are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Woodside Energy is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block, Xero, WiseTech Global and Appen are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Zip is advancing almost 4 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Westpac is declining almost 4 percent and ANZ Banking is losing almost 1 percent.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is adding almost 2 percent, Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.2 percent, Newmont is up more than 1 percent, Evolution Mining is gaining more than 2 percent and Resolute Mining is rising almost 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.643 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw considerable volatility over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after moving mostly lower over the two previous sessions. The major averages swung back and forth across the unchanged, particularly in the latter part of the session.

The major averages eventually ended the day in positive territory. The Dow advanced 284.97 points or 0.7 percent to 41,113.79, the S&P 500 climbed 24.37 points or 0.4 percent to 5,631.28 and the Nasdaq rose 48.50 points or 0.3 percent to 17,738.16.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 0.9 percent, the German DAX Index slid by 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Wednesday, giving back ground following the surge seen in the previous session. After spiking $1.96 or 3.4 percent to $59.09 a barrel during Tuesday's session, crude for June delivery tumbled $1.02 or 1.7 percent to $58.07 a barrel.