Australian Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading slightly lower on Thursday, reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying well below the 8,600 level, with a mixed performance across most sectors. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 7.50 points or 0.09 percent to 8,551.70, after hitting a low of 8,534.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 6.70 points or 0.08 percent to 8,773.20. Australian stocks ended slightly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while Mineral Resources is gaining almost 3 percent and Fortescue Metals is adding almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Santos is gaining almost 1 percent, while Beach energy and Woodside Energy are edging down 0.4 percent each. Origin Energy is flat.

In the tech space, Zip is gaining more than 2 percent, WiseTech Global is edging up 0.2 percent and Appen is adding more than 4 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 1 percent. Xero is tumbling almost 8 percent after the software giant agreed to a $3.9 billion acquisition of American accounting and invoicing platform Melio Payments.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ Banking are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining are losing more than 1 percent each, while Gold Road Resources is down almost 1 percent. Resolute Mining and Newmont are gaining almost 1 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.652 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks initially extended the rally seen to start the week early in the session on Wednesday before giving back ground over the course of the trading day. The major averages pulled back off their early highs, eventually ending the day narrowly mixed.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 61.02 points or 0.3 percent to a new four-month closing high of 19,973.55, the S&P 500 edge down 0.02 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,092.16 and the Dow slipped 106.59 points or 0.3 percent to 42,982.43.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, the German DAX Index declined by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.8 percent.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Wednesday as an EIA report indicated a draw in crude oil inventories and a surge in U.S. gasoline demand to a three-and-a-half-year high. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for August delivery closed up by $0.55 to settle at $64.92 per barrel.