Australian Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading slightly lower on Wednesday, reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling near the 8,800 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in gold miners, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 7.40 points or 0.08 percent to 8,801.10, after touching a high of 8,838.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 6.60 points or 0.07 percent to 9,131.90. Australian stocks ended notably higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources and Fortescue are edging down 0.1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mixed. Santos and Woodside Energy are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Beach energy is adding more than 1 percent. Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is declining almost 3 percent, Xero is slipping 1.5 percent and WiseTech Global is losing almost 1 percent, while Zip is adding almost 1 percent. Appen is flat.

Among the big four banks, Westpac, National Australia bank and Commonwealth Bank are losing almost 1 percent each. ANZ Banking is edging down 0.3 percent. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are losing almost 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources and Genesis Minerals are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each. Newmont is advancing more than 2 percent.

In economic news, the total number of building approvals issued in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 15.2 percent on month in November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday - coming in at 18,406. That follows the 6.1 percent monthly contraction in October.

On a yearly basis, approvals jumped 20.2 percent after sinking 1.8 percent in the previous month. The value of total building work approved rose 12.8 percent in November to A$18.38 billion, after a 1.8 percent October fall.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.668 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after recovering from initial weakness to end Monday's session modestly higher.

The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually ending the day in negative territory. The Dow slid 398.21 points or 0.8 percent to 49,191.99, the Nasdaq edged down 24.03 points or 0.1 percent to 23,709.87 and the S&P 500 dipped 13.53 points or 0.2 percent to 6,963.74.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day narrowly mixed. While the German DAX Index crept up by 0.1, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just below the unchanged line and the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Tuesday, extending a recent surge amid increasing geopolitical risks due to escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which have raised output-and-supply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was up $1.55 or 2.61 percent at $61.05 per barrel.