(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is lower on renewed selling pressure on Thursday, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 treading towards the 6,700 level as investors are cautious thanks to renewed concerns over bond yields. The lead from Wall Street was also negative overnight. Precious metal miners are deep into the red after a sharp decline in gold prices. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 46.80 points or 0.69 percent to 6,771.20, after touching a low of 6,716.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 52.90 points or 0.75 percent to 7,014.70. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Wednesday.
The major miners are lower. Fortescue Metals is losing more than 2 percent and Rio Tinto is down over 1 percent, while BHP Group is declining almost 3 percent.
Oil stocks are mixed, with Oil Search edging down 0.2 percent, while Santos is up nearly 1 percent. Woodside Petroleum is losing more than 1 percent.
Among the big four banks, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank are edging up 0.3 percent each, while ANZ Banking an National Australia Bank are rising more than 1 percent each.
Meanwhile, tech stocks are lower. Appen is losing more than 3 percent and WiseTech Global is down almost 3 percent, while Afterpay is losing almost 1 percent.
Gold miners are declining after gold prices touched a nine-month low overnight. Evolution Mining is losing more than 3 percent, while Newcrest Mining is down more than 2 percent. Northern Star Resources is declining nearly 4 percent.
In economic news, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Australia had a seasonally adjusted merchandise trade surplus of A$10.142 billion in January, the largest trade surplus on record. That easily beat forecasts for a surplus of A$6.5 billion following the upwardly revised A$7.133 billion surplus in December (originally A$6.785 billion).
The Australian Bureau of Statistics also said the total value of retail sales in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent at A$30.512 billion on month in January. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 0.6 percent following the 4.1 percent decline in December. On a yearly basis, the value of retail sales was up 10.6 percent.
On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Wednesday, extending the pullback seen in the previous session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed another particularly steep drop, tumbling to its lowest closing level in nearly two months.
The major averages saw further downside going into the close, ending the session at their worst levels of the day. The Nasdaq plunged 361.04 points or 2.7 percent to 12,997.75, the S&P 500 slumped 50.57 points or 1.3 percent to 3,819.72 and the Dow fell 121.43 points or 0.4 percent to 31,270.09.
The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.9 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures were sharply higher Wednesday amid speculation that OPEC may decide to extend production curbs for the near future. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended up $1.53 or 2.62 percent at $61.28 a barrel.
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