Australian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian market pared early losses to trade modestly higher on Thursday, after the losses in the previous three sessions and following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying above the 7,000 mark, with gains in iron ore miner stocks and energy stocks partially offset by losses in gold miner stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 14.90 points or 0.21 percent to 7,045.20, after hitting a low of 7,007.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 13.00 points or 0.18 percent to 7,242.80. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Fortescue Metals and Mineral Resources are adding more than 1 percent each. Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos and Woodside Energy are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Beach energy is adding more than 3 percent. Origin Energy is edging down 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 1 percent and WiseTech Global is edging down 0.5 percent, while Appen is gaining more than 1 percent and Xero is edging up 0.5 percent. Zip is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while ANZ Banking is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among gold miners, Newcrest Mining is declining more than 4 percent, Northern Star Resources is losing more than 1 percent, Evolution Mining is slipping almost 2 percent and Gold Road Resources is down 1.5 percent, while Resolute Mining is gaining 1.5 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.636 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw substantial volatility over the course of the trading day on Wednesday following the sell-off seen during Tuesday's session. The major averages spent the day showing wild swings back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the day narrowly mixed. While the Dow slipped 68.61 points or 0.2 percent to a new three-month closing low of 33,550.27, the S&P 500 crept up 0.98 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 4,274.51 and the Nasdaq rose 29.24 points or 0.2 percent to 13,092.85.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index closed just below the unchanged line, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures rose sharply on Wednesday after data showing an unexpected drop in U.S. crude stockpiles in the week ended September 22 added to concerns about tightening supplies amid production cuts by OPEC and its allies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November climbed $3.29 or about 3.6% to settle at $93.68 a barrel, the highest settlement since August 29, 2022.