Australian Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slightly lower in choppy trading on Monday, reversing some of the gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is staying near the 8,350.00 level, with a mixed performance across most sectors. Gold miners were the only bright spot

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 6.00 points or 0.07 percent to 8,354.90, after hitting a low of 8,354.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 1.80 points or 0.02 percent to 8,584.90. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is adding more than 1 percent. Rio Tinto is edging down 0.1 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Woodside Energy is edging down 0.2 percent and Origin Energy is declining almost 4 percent, while Santos and Beach energy are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is edging up 0.4 percent and WiseTech Global is gaining more than 3 percent, while Zip is losing more than 1 percent and Xero is edging down 0.4 percent. Appen is flat.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining is gaining more than 2 percent, Resolute Mining is up almost 1 percent, Northern Star Resources is adding more than 1 percent and Newmont is edging up 0.2 percent, while Gold Road Resources is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.2 percent, while National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are losing almost 1 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.651 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower in early trading on Friday but regained some ground over the course of the session. While the major averages climbed well off their worst levels of the day, they still closed firmly in negative territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled as much as 1.7 percent early in the session before ending the day down 188.53 points or 1.0 percent at 18,737.21. The S&P 500 also slid 39.19 points or 0.7 percent to 5,802.82 and the Dow fell 256.02 points or 0.6 percent at 41,603.07

The major European have all also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index slumped by 1.5 percent and the French CAC 40 Index tumbled by 1.7 percent.

Crude oil prices ticked higher on Friday but still fell for the week amid reports of another production increase by OPEC for July. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery climbed $0.34 or 0.6 percent to $61.54 a barrel. For the week, crude fell 1.5 percent.