Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading notably lower on Thursday, snapping a five-session winning session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling to staly a tad above the 8,300 level, with weakness across most sectors led by technology and iron ore miners. Gold miners were the only bright spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 46.50 points or 0.56 percent to 8,302.60, after hitting a low of 8,293.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 48.00 points or 0.56 percent to 8,551.40. Australian stocks ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is slipping 2.5 percent, Rio Tinto is declining almost 1 percent and BHP Group is losing more than 1 percent. Fortescue Metals is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy and Santos are losing more than 1 percent each, while Beach energy and Origin Energy are down almost 1 percent each.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 2 percent, WiseTech Global is edging down 0.3 percent, Appen is declining almost 7 percent and Zip down almost 2 percent. Xero is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking, Westpac and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.3 to 0.5 percent each. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is up more than 1 percent, Gold Road Resources is advancing more than 2 percent, Newmont is adding almost 3 percent and Northern Star Resources is gaining more than 3 percent, while Resolute Mining is losing almost 2 percent.

In other news, shares in Star Entertainment are plummeting more than 23 percent after the company warned it has just $79 million left in cash, far less than it spent in the past three months. Shares in Avita Medical tumbled more than 12 percent after the company admitted it would miss revenue forecasts.

In economic news, the value of retail sales in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 0.8 percent on month in November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday - coming in at A$37.052 billion. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 1.0 percent but was up from 0.6 percent in October.

Meanwhile, Australia posted a seasonally adjusted merchandise trade surplus of A$7.079 billion November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. That beat expectations for a surplus of A$5.750 billion following the upwardly revised A$5.670 billion surplus in October (originally A$5.593 billion).

Exports were up 4.8 percent on month to A$43.816 billion, up from the downwardly revised 3.5 percent increase in the previous month (originally 3.6 percent). Imports were up 1.7 percent on month at A$36.737 billion following the downwardly revised 0.1 percent contraction a month earlier (originally +0.1 percent).

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.620 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction during trading on Wednesday following the sharp pullback seen over the course of Tuesday's session. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing narrowly mixed.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq edged down 10.80 points or 0.1 percent to 19,478.87, the Dow rose 106.84 points or 0.3 percent to 42,635.20 and the S&P 500 crept up 9.22 points or 0.2 percent to 5,918.25.

The major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices settled lower Wednesday as a sharp increase in gasoline stockpiles and a stronger dollar weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended lower by $0.93 or 1.25 percent at $73.32 a barrel.