Australian Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading slightly lower on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous four sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying well below the 8,650 level, with weakness in gold miners, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 9.70 points or 0.11 percent to 8,620.70, after hitting a low of 8,602.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 8.60 points or 0.10 percent to 8,872.10. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and Fortescue are adding almost 1 percent each, while BHP Group is gaining almost 2 percent. Mineral Resources is losing almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Beach energy and Woodside Energy are losing almost 1 percent each, while Santos and Origin Energy are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is declining more than 3 percent, WiseTech Global is losing more than 4 percent, Xero is slipping almost 1 percent and Zip is edging down 0.2 percent. Appen is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.2 percent, Westpac is losing more than 1 percent, ANZ Banking is down almost 1 percent and National Australia Bank is declining almost 2 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are losing almost 1 percent each, while Newmont is down more than 1 percent and Genesis Minerals is slipping 1.5 percent. Resolute Mining is gaining more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Megaport are skyrocketing almost 23 percent after it secured $254 million worth of long-term network and storage contracts through its newly minted Latitude.sh subsidiary and reaffirmed its full-year 2026 guidance.

Shares in Bapcor are tumbling more than 18 percent after the listed car parts retailer downgraded its full-year 2026 EBITDA guidance, due to deteriorating trading conditions since the start of the Middle East conflict.

Shares in GrainCorp are plunging almost 12 percent after the agribusiness company reported softer-than-expected first-half results as oversupply in global grain markets and weak pricing compressed margins across the supply chain.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.726 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, with technology stocks moving sharply higher on the day, the Nasdaq showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Wednesday, reaching a new record closing high. The S&P 500 also climbed to a new record closing high, although the narrower Dow edged slightly lower after posting a modest gain on Tuesday.

While the Dow slipped 67.36 points or 0.1 percent to 49,693.20, the S&P 500 advanced 43.29 points or 0.6 percent to 7,444.25 and the Nasdaq shot up 314.14 points or 1.2 percent to 26,402.34.

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

Crude oil prices pulled back on Wednesday as the upcoming negotiations between the presidents of the U.S. and China have increased expectations of an end to the U.S.-Iran standoff despite OPEC and IEA oil forecast reports warning of a supply-demand mismatch. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was down $1.04 or 1.02 percent at $101.14 per barrel.