(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is notably lower on Friday following the overnight sell-off on Wall Street reflecting weakness in tech stocks. News that Victoria's daily coronavirus death toll rose to a record 59 also dampened sentiment. Further, investors turned cautious ahead of the U.S. monthly employment report for August due later in the day.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 151.60 points or 2.48 percent to 5,961.00, after touching a low of 5,955.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 156.10 points or 2.48 percent to 6,144.90. Australian stocks rose for a second straight session on Thursday.
In the tech sector, Appen is tumbling 7 percent, WiseTech Global is sliding almost 7 percent and Afterpay is falling more than 4 percent after their U.S. peers tumbled overnight.
Among the major miners, BHP Group is losing more than 3 percent, Rio Tinto is lower by more than 2 percent and Fortescue Metals is declining almost 2 percent.
Oil stocks are also mostly lower after crude oil prices fell overnight. Santos and Oil Search are lower by more than 2 percent each, while Woodside Petroleum is down almost 2 percent.
In the banking space, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are lower in a range of 2.1 percent to 2.3 percent, while Commonwealth Bank is declining almost 2 percent.
Bucking the trend, gold miners are higher even as gold prices declined to a one-week low overnight. Evolution Mining is rising 0.5 percent and Newcrest Mining is adding 0.3 percent.
In economic news, Australia will release July figures for retail sales today.
On Wall Street, stocks closed sharply lower on Thursday, largely reflecting profit taking as some traders looked to cash in on the recent strength in the markets. Stocks had been trending higher over the past several weeks, leading some analysts to suggest the recovery by the markets has been overdone. Tech stocks led the markets lower.
The Dow tumbled 807.77 points or 2.8 percent to 28,292.73, the Nasdaq plummeted 598.34 points or 5 percent to 11,458.10 and the S&P 500 plunged 125.78 points or 3.5 percent to 3,455.06.
The major European markets also moved to the downside on Thursday. While the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index tumbled by 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices recovered after an early sharp fall on Thursday but still ended the session on a negative note amid concerns about the pace of economic recovery and the outlook for energy demand. WTI crude for October ended down $0.14 or about 0.3 percent at $41.37 a barrel.
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