Australian Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - Adding to the losses in the previous sessions, the Australian stock market is sharply lower on Tuesday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 breached the 7,000 mark to fall to a six-month low, with weakness across global markets amid a strong US dollar and a surge in treasury yields. Traders also cautiously await domestic interest rate decision later in the day.

The Reserve Bank of Australia will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates. The RBA is expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 4.10 percent for a fourth consecutive month.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 97.00 points or 1.38 percent to 6,936.20, after hitting a low of 7,908.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 101.60 points or 1.40 percent to 7,133.90. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is losing more than 2 percent and Mineral Resources is slipping more than 3 percent, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are declining almost 2 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos and Woodside Energy are sliding almost 4 percent each, while Origin Energy is losing more than 1 percent and Beach energy is declining almost 5 percent.

Among tech stocks, Xero is slipping almost 1 percent, WiseTech Global is losing more than 1 percent, Zip is declining almost 5 percent, Afterpay owner Block is down almost 3 percent and Appen is plunging almost 7 percent. Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star resources, Resolute Mining, Gold Road Resources, Evolution Mining and Newcrest Mining are all losing almost 4 percent each.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is losing almost 1 percent, while Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.3 to 0.5 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.636 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in another mixed performance during trading on Monday after ending last Friday's trading on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day firmly in positive territory, the Dow dipped to its lowest closing level in four months.

The Nasdaq climbed 88.45 points or 0.7 percent to 13,307.77 and the S&P 500 crept up 0.34 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 4,288.39, but the Dow slipped 74.15 points or 0.2 percent to 33,433.35.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index tumbled by 1.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both slumped by 0.9 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday, hurt by a stronger dollar and concerns about prospects of rising supplies in the market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November sank $1.97 or 2.2 percent at $88.82 a barrel.