Australian Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is currently trading slightly higher on Monday after opening in the red, recouping the slight losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving a tad above the 7,500.00 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday, with gains in gold miners, energy and financial stocks partially offset by losses in iron ore miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 5.10 points or 0.07 percent to 7,503.40, after hitting a low of 7,477.60 and a high of 7,503.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 7.00 points or 0.09 percent to 7,737.50. Australian stocks closed slightly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Mineral Resources is losing almost 3 percent and BHP Group is declining almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy and Woodside Energy are advancing almost 1 percent each, while Santos is edging up 0.4 percent. Origin Energy is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Xero is edging up 0.1 percent, while Appen is losing more than 2 percent, Afterpay owner Block is declining almost 1 percent and Zip is down almost 2 percent. WiseTech Global is flat.

Gold miners are higher. Gold Road Resources, Evolution Mining and Newmont are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is adding almost 1 percent and Resolute Mining is advancing almost 2 percent.

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

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.669 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Friday, with traders digesting earnings news from several big-name companies as well as the latest U.S. inflation data.

While the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq eventually ended the session slightly higher, the narrower Dow showed a modest move to the downside. The S&P 500 inched up 3.59 points or 0.1 percent to 4,783.83 and the Nasdaq crept up 2.57 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 14,972.76, the Dow dipped 118.04 points or 0.3 percent to 37,592.98.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices settled notably higher on Friday as an escalation in tensions in the Middle East raised concerns about delay in supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended higher by $0.66 or 0.9 percent at $72.68 a barrel. For the week, the contract shed about 1.1 percent.