Australian Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading slightly lower on Wednesday after opening in the green, giving up some of the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying below the 7,800 level, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in technology stocks partially offset by gains in mining and energy stocks amid spiking commodity prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 8.30 points or 0.11 percent to 7,769.80, after hitting a low of 7,769.70 and high of 7,787.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 6.70 points or 0.08 percent to 8,009.10. Australian stocks ended significantly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is edging up 0.5 percent and Fortescue Metals is gaining almost 2 percent, while Mineral Resources is edging down 0.1 percent. BHP Group is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos is gaining almost 1 percent, Woodside Energy is adding 1.5 percent and Origin Energy is edging up 0.2 percent, while Beach energy is declining almost 3 percent. In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 1 percent and Zip is declining almost 3 percent, while WiseTech Global is gaining almost 1 percent and Appen is edging up 0.4 percent. Xero are flat. Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Westpac is edging up 0.2 percent. ANZ Banking is flat.

Among gold miners, Newmont and Northern Star Resources are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Gold Road Resources, Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are adding more than 1 percent each. In other news, shares in Helia Group are plunging 9 percent to $3.56 after Commonwealth Bank of Australia flagged potential changes to the companies' existing lenders mortgage insurance contract.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.666 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Tuesday following the strong upward move seen over the course of the previous session. Despite the choppy trading, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq once again reached new record closing highs.

The major averages all finished the day modestly higher. The S&P 500 climbed 13.80 points or 0.2 percent to 5,487.03, the Dow rose 56.76 points or 0.2 percent to 38,834.86 and the Nasdaq inched up 5.21 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 17,862.23.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent and the German DAX Index increased by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed to near 7-week highs on Tuesday amid expectations of high summer demand for the commodity and continued production cuts by OPEC and allies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up by $1.24 or about 1.54% at $81.57 a barrel, the highest settlement in nearly seven weeks.