Australian Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading modestly lower on Thursday, adding to the losses in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the 8,800 level, with weakness is financial, energy and technology stocks partially offset by gains in mining stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 22.60 points or 0.26 percent to 8,776.90, after hitting a low of 8,770.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 18.60 points or 0.21 percent to 9,060.80. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and BHP Group are edging up 0.2 percent each, while Mineral Resources is gaining almost 1 percent and Fortescue is advancing more than 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy is losing more than 1 percent, Santos is down almost 2 percent, Woodside Energy is declining more than 2 percent and Origin Energy is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.3 percent, Appen is down more than 1 percent, Zip is losing more than 2 percent and Xero is declining almost 4 percent, while WiseTech Global is edging up 0.4 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking is tumbling almost 5 percent, National Australia Bank is declining almost 1 percent and Westpac is down almost 2 percent, while Commonwealth Bank is edging up 0.2 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is advancing almost 3 percent, Northern Star Resources is gaining more than 1 percent, Genesis Minerals is rising more than 2 percent, Resolute Mining is surging almost 5 percent and Newmont is adding more than 3 percent.

In economic news, the unemployment rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 4.3 percent in October, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. That was below expectations for 4.4 percent and down from 4.5 percent in September. The participation rate was unchanged at 67.0 percent.

The Australian economy added 42.2K jobs last month, blowing away expectations for an increase of 20K jobs following the increase of 14.9K in the previous month. Full-time employment increased by 55,300 to 10,141,600 people, while part-time employment decreased by 13,100 to 4,541,600 people.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.655 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, the major stock indexes once again moved in opposite directions during trading on Wednesday following the mixed performance seen during Tuesday's session. While the Dow climbed to a near record closing high, the tech-heavy Nasdaq showed another moderate move to the downside.

The Nasdaq fell 61.84 points or 0.3 percent to 23,406.46, but the S&P 500 inched up 4.31 points or 0.1 percent to 6,850.92 and the Dow climbed 326.86 points or 0.7 percent to 48,254.82.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside over the course of the session. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent and the German DAX Index surged by 1.2 percent.

Crude oil prices plummeted on Wednesday after OPEC's monthly report suggested that global supply now exceeds demand by about 500,000 barrels per day. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $2.62 or 4.31 percent at $58.40 per barrel.