Australian shares experienced a notable decline on Wednesday, undoing the gains from the previous session. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped below the 7,800 mark, influenced by mixed signals from Wall Street overnight and a broad weakness across sectors, particularly in mining and energy stocks due to falling commodity prices. The S&P/ASX 200 Index has fallen 42.00 points, or 0.54%, to 7,787.70, after reaching a low of 7,829.70 earlier. The All Ordinaries Index is also down by 44.40 points, or 0.55%, to 8,030.80. Australian stocks had closed significantly higher on Tuesday.
Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are each down nearly 1%, while Mineral Resources has declined more than 2%. Rio Tinto remains flat. Oil stocks are generally trending lower; Beach Energy is down over 1%, Origin Energy is declining by 1.5%, and both Santos and Woodside Energy have edged down 0.4% each. In the tech sector, Afterpay's owner Block is slightly down by 0.3%, Zip has dropped more than 3%, Xero is down almost 1%, and WiseTech Global has lost over 1%. Appen remains unchanged.
Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are each down nearly 1%, while National Australia Bank has edged down 0.3%. ANZ Banking has managed a slight increase of 0.1%. For gold miners, Resolute Mining, Gold Road Resources, and Evolution Mining are each up between 0.1% and 0.3%, while Newmont has fallen almost 1%, and Northern Star Resources has edged down 0.4%.
In the currency market, the Australian dollar is trading at $0.673 as of Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks lacked clear direction during Tuesday's trading session, with major averages fluctuating around the unchanged line and closing narrowly mixed. Nonetheless, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 achieved new record closing highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 52.82 points, or 0.1%, to 39,291.97, while the Nasdaq inched up 25.55 points, or 0.1%, to 18,429.29, and the S&P 500 increased by 4.13 points, or 0.1%, to 5,576.98.
Meanwhile, European markets saw declines. The French CAC 40 Index fell by 1.6%, the German DAX Index dropped by 1.3%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index decreased by 0.7%.
Crude oil prices continued their downward trend for the third consecutive session on Tuesday, driven by concerns over demand outlook and reports that Hurricane Beryl caused no significant damage to Gulf coast refineries and ports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August closed down $0.92, settling at $81.41 a barrel.
