The Australian sharemarket has dropped in the opening minutes of trade following an up-and-down Wall Street session overnight as oil prices plunged.
The ASX 200 was 0.1 per cent lower at 6,621 points at 10.28am and had fallen as much as 0.4 per cent at the immediate open of markets.
Falling commodity prices hurt the resources sectors, with energy stocks down 4.1 per cent and mining stocks down 3.3 per cent. Technology stocks countered some resource stock losses in early trade, jumping 3.6 per cent higher after the sector performed well on Wall Street overnight.
Energy shares were hit hard by a slump in US oil prices.Credit:AP
US markets ended with meager gains on Tuesday in New York, as a late-afternoon rally led by tech companies stemmed the market’s losses after an early slump.
The S&P eked out a gain of 0.2 per cent after having been down 2.2 per cent earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4 per cent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed 1.7 per cent higher.
The weak Wall Street opening, which followed a long weekend for the Independence Day holiday, came about as the price of US crude oil fell sharply, eventually settling below $US100 a barrel for the first time since early May. Bond yields also fell, a sign traders were seeking less risky assets.
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Energy, industrial, health care and most of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500 ended in the red, despite the late-day rally in technology stocks, communication firms and retailers and other companies that rely on direct consumer spending.
The volatility reflects growing worries among investors that the economy is slowing under the weight of surging inflation and sharply higher interest rates, pressures that could tip the economy into a recession.
