Australian Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly lower in choppy trading on Monday after opening in the green, giving up the gains in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying above the 7,500 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, with weakness in gold miners, financials and technology stocks, partially offset by gains in iron ore miners and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 11.90 points or 0.16 percent to 7,546.20, after hitting a low of 7,531.40 and a high of 7,567.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 16.90 points or 0.22 percent to 7,754.90. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals and BHP Group are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is edging down 0.4 percent. OZ Minerals is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Beach energy is advancing more than 3 percent and Santos is edging 0.5 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.4 percent, Appen is losing more than 3 percent, Xero is down more than 1 percent, WiseTech Global is slipping almost 1 percent and Zip is declining almost 3 percent.

Gold miners are mostly weak. Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.6 percent, Evolution Mining is down more than 1 percent, Gold Road Resources is losing almost 1 percent and Resolute Mining is declining almost 2 percent, while Newcrest Mining is soaring more than 11 percent after it received a $24.45 billion takeover bid from American company Newmont Corp.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are all losing almost 1 percent each.

In other news, shares in Nick Scali are plunging more than 10 percent despite reporting a 70 percent jump in profit for the first half.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.691 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks recovered from initial weakness but showed a significant move back to the downside over the course of the trading session on Friday. With the pullback on the day, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 gave back ground after moving sharply higher for three straight sessions.

The Nasdaq tumbled 193.86 points or 1.6 percent to 12,006.95, the S&P 500 also slumped 43.28 points or 1.0 percent to 4,136.48 and the narrower Dow showed a more modest decrease on the day, with the blue chip index falling 127.93 points or 0.4 percent to 33,926.01.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the German DAX Index dipped by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Friday amid concerns about the outlook for fuel demand, with investors weighing the prospects of a recession - while a stronger dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $2.49 or 3.3 percent at $73.39 a barrel.