Australian Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly lower on Friday, giving up the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling a tad below the 7,300 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged by losses in gold miners and technology stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 25.70 points or 0.35 percent to 7,299.30, after hitting a low of 7,288.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 30.40 points or 0.40 percent to 7,511.50. Australian markets ended slightly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and BHP Group are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is edging down 0.4 percent and Mineral Resources is losing more than 6 percent. Oil stocks are mixed. Santos and Origin Energy are edging down 0.3 percent each, while Beach energy is gaining almost 1 percent and Woodside Energy is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is down more than 2 percent and Xero is declining more than 4 percent, while WiseTech Global and Appen are losing more than 3 percent each. Zip is advancing more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.4 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging up 0.5 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star Resources and Resolute Mining are losing more than 1 percent each, while Evolution Mining is declining more than 3 percent, Newcrest Mining is slipping more than 5 percent and Gold Road Resources is down almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.677 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a starkly mixed performance during trading on Thursday after generally moving higher over the past several sessions. While the Dow closed higher for the ninth straight session, reaching its best closing level in over a year, the tech-heavy Nasdaq pulled back sharply following recent strength.

The Dow ended the session well off its best levels of the day but still closed up 163.97 points or 0.5 percent at 35,225.18, while the Nasdaq plunged 294.71 points or 2.1 percent to 14,063.31 and the S&P 500 slid 30.85 points or 0.7 percent to 4,354.87.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both advanced by 0.8 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Thursday and lifted the August series futures contract to a positive close on the expiration day amid fears of declining supplies from Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August settled at $75.63 a barrel, gaining $0.28 or 0.4 percent.