Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading notably lower on Wednesday, snapping a three-session winning streak, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 8,000 mark, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in gold miners, financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in iron ore miners and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 45.90 points or 0.52 percent to 8,800.00, after hitting a low of 8,792.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 48.90 points or 0.54 percent to 9,088.90. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Mineral Resources is gaining more than 1 percent. Rio Tinto is edging down 0.3 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy and Santos are adding almost 1 percent each, while Beach energy is gaining more than 1 percent. Origin Energy is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.5 percent, Xero is down more than 1 percent and Zip is declining more than 3 percent, while WiseTech Global and Appen are losing more than 2 percent each.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and Westpac are losing more than 1 percent each, while National Australia bank is down almost 1 percent and Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.5 percent. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent, Resolute Mining is declining almost 4 percent, Gold Road Resources is edging down 0.1 percent and Northern Star Resources is down 1.5 percent, while Newmont is gaining almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Race Oncology are surging more than 6 percent after achieving an important milestone with Korean regulatory approval for its investigational anticancer drug RC220.

Shares in Barton Gold are jumping almost 11 percent after the gold miner announced promising new gold and silver exploration results.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.660 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Tuesday, giving back ground after trending higher over the past few sessions. The major averages all moved to the downside, pulling back off Monday's record closing highs.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way lower, slumping 215.50 points or 1.0 percent to 22,573.47. The S&P 500 slid 36.83 points or 0.6 percent to 6,656.92, while the narrower Dow dipped 88.76 points or 0.2 percent to 46,292.78.

Meanwhile, European stocks moved mostly higher on the day. The French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.5 percent and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and closed just below the unchanged line.

Crude oil prices moved sharply higher on Tuesday as Iraq's earlier-announced plans to export oil to Turkey from Kurdistan stalled due to payment issues. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $1.26 or 2.02 percent at $63.54 per barrel.