FX.co ★ Australian Market Significantly Lower

The Australian market experienced a significant downturn on Thursday, extending the losses seen in the previous two sessions due to broadly negative cues from global markets. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 has fallen below the 7,800 level, with most sectors, particularly mining and energy stocks, showing weakness due to declining commodity prices.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index has dropped 80.70 points or 1.03 percent to 7,767.40, hitting a low of 7,766.20 earlier in the session. Meanwhile, the broader All Ordinaries Index is down by 77.80 points or 0.96 percent to 8,040.50, having closed slightly lower on Wednesday.

In the mining sector, major players like Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are down by nearly 2 percent each, while Fortescue Metals has decreased by 1.5 percent. BHP Group has seen a loss of almost 3 percent following Anglo American's rejection of its third offer and a demand for a better bid within a week.

Oil stocks are mostly in decline. Woodside Energy and Beach Energy have each lost more than 1 percent, while Santos shares are also down by over 1 percent. Conversely, Origin Energy is up slightly by 0.1 percent.

The tech sector is facing challenges as well, with Afterpay owner Block dropping 4.5 percent and Zip down by more than 3 percent. WiseTech Global and Appen remain flat, but Xero is an outlier, surging over 7 percent following a strong full-year revenue report and an optimistic forecast for fiscal 2025.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is losing nearly 1 percent, while ANZ Banking, Westpac, and National Australia Bank are all down by more than 1 percent each.

Gold miners are also struggling, with Evolution Mining down almost 4 percent and Gold Road Resources declining by over 2 percent. Newmont and Northern Star Resources have each dropped by more than 3 percent, though Resolute Mining has gained nearly 1 percent.

In other corporate news, Nufarm shares have slumped by 6.5 percent following reports of decreased profits and revenue for the half-year. The Reject Shop has also seen its shares fall by over 5 percent after warning of a significant drop in earnings, despite improved store sales.

Economic data from Judo Bank reveals that Australia's manufacturing sector continued to contract in May, maintaining a steady pace with a PMI score of 49.6, unchanged from April. The services PMI slightly eased to 53.1 in May from 53.6 in April, and the composite PMI fell to 52.6 from 53.0 in April.

In the currency market, the Australian dollar is trading at $0.661.

On Wall Street, stocks exhibited a lack of direction for much of Wednesday’s session before coming under pressure after the release of the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting minutes. Despite this, the major averages recovered some losses by the day's end, though they still closed in the red; the Dow down by 201.95 points or 0.5 percent to 39,671.04, the S&P 500 fell by 14.40 points or 0.3 percent to 5,307.01, and the Nasdaq dipped by 31.08 points or 0.2 percent to 16,801.54.

European markets also saw declines, with the German DAX Index down by 0.3 percent and both the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index falling by 0.6 percent.

In the commodities market, crude oil prices hit a two-month low on Wednesday after data revealed an unexpected increase in U.S. crude oil inventories. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July fell by $1.09 or 1.4 percent, settling at $77.57 a barrel.