Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is notably lower on Monday, snapping an eight-session winning streak, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is falling to near the 8,300.00 level, with weakness in iron ore miners, technology and financial stocks partially offset by gains in gold miners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 38.90 points or 0.47 percent to 8,304.80, after hitting a low of 8,303.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 41.80 points or 0.49 percent to 8,538.10. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group, Fortescue Metals and Rio Tinto are losing almost 2 percent each, while Mineral Resources is declining almost 5 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are edging up 0.3 percent each, while Santos and Beach energy are edging down 0.4 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 2 percent, while WiseTech Global is edging down 0.2 percent, Zip are losing more than 2 percent and Appen is sliding more than 6 percent. Xero is flat.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is adding more than 1 percent, Newmont is advancing more than 4 percent and Gold Road Resources is up almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is edging up 0.5 percent, while National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are losing almost 1 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.641 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading session on Friday after initially showing a lack of direction. The major averages all climbed firmly into positive territory after closing mixed for two straight sessions.

The major averages ended the day near their highs of the session. The Dow advanced 331.99 points or 0.8 percent to 42,654.74, the S&P 500 climbed 41.45 points or 0.7 percent to 5,958.38 and the Nasdaq rose 98.78 points or 0.5 percent to 19,211.10.

The major European have all also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices showed a strong move to the upside on Friday amid optimism about U.S. trade policies. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery jumped $0.87 or 1.4 percent to $62.49 a barrel. For the week, the price of crude oil surged 2.4 percent.