Australian Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is currently trading slightly lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is staying just above the 7,700.00 level, with weakness in iron miners and technology stocks nearly offset by gains in gold miners.

Traders turned cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia's monetary policy decision later in the week, with the RBA widely expected to hold the cash rate at 4.35 percent.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 10.10 points or 0.13 percent to 7,714.20, after hitting a low of 7,708.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 14.40 points or 0.18 percent to 7,960.40. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto and BHP Group are edging down 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is losing almost 1 percent and Mineral Resources is declining more than 1 percent. Oil stocks are mixed. Beach energy is edging up 0.2 percent and Origin Energy is adding almost 1 percent, while Woodside Energy and Santos are edging down 0.3 to 0.5 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Appen is losing more than 2 percent, Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.1 percent and WiseTech Global is down almost 1 percent, while Zip is edging up 0.5 percent. Xero is flat.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Gold Road Resources is gaining almost 3 percent and Evolution Mining is edging up 0.3 percent, while Resolute Mining and Newmont are adding more than 1 percent each. Northern Star Resources is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.660 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stock saw modest weakness throughout much of the trading session on Friday but recovered to end the day roughly flat. The tech-heavy Nasdaq bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually ending the session at a record closing high.

While the Nasdaq crept up 21.32 points or 0.1 percent to 17,688.88, the S&P 500 edged down 2.14 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,431.60 and the Dow dipped 57.94 points or 0.2 percent to 38,589.16.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index plummeted by 2.7 percent, the German DAX Index tumbled by 1.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices snapped a four-day winning streak and settled lower on Friday after data showed a jump in U.S. crude inventories, while a stronger greenback weighed as well. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July fell $0.17 or about 0.22 percent at $78.45 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained nearly 4 percent in the week.