Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is notably lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 7,300 mark, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged by iron ore miners amid a fall in iron ore prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 28.30 points or 0.39 percent to 7,293.70, after hitting a low of 7,285.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 31.60 points or 0.42 percent to 7,480.60. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Monday ahead of the holiday on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing almost 2 percent, Fortescue Metals is declining more than 2 percent and Rio Tinto is slipping more than 1 percent. Mineral Resources is plunging more than 10 percent after the mining services company downgraded its full-year production guidance. Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos and Woodside Energy are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Beach energy is adding almost 1 percent. Origin Energy is edging down 0.2 percent. In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and are losing almost 1 percent and WiseTech Global is down more than 1 percent, while Xero is gaining more than 1 percent, Appen is edging up 0.4 percent and Zip is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is losing almost 1 percent, while Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. ANZ Banking is edging up 0.2 percent.

Among gold miners, Resolute Mining is gaining almost 2 percent, Newcrest Mining is adding almost 3 percent, Gold Road Resources is advancing almost 4 percent, Northern Star Resources is up more than 2 percent and Evolution Mining is rising more than 3 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.663 on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after showing a lack of direction for two straight sessions. The major averages all showed significant moves to the downside after ending Monday's trading narrowly mixed.

The major averages finished the day just off their lows of the session. The Dow slumped 344.57 points or 1.0 percent to 33,530.83, the Nasdaq plunged 238.05 points or 2.0 percent to 11,799.16 and the S&P 500 tumbled 65.41 points or 1.6 percent to 4,071.63.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the German DAX Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.3 percent and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday amid concerns over the outlook for energy demand due to fears of a global economic slowdown, while the dollar's rise weighed as well. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended lower by $1.69 or 2.2 percent to $77.07 per barrel.