By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 fell 43.60 points or 0.60% to 7,212.40 on Wednesday, reversing gains of 0.22% yesterday and tracking a negative session among U.S. indices, with market participants proving cautious on prospects of further economic slowdowns due to the new coronavirus Omicron variant, with plummeting oil prices hitting energy stocks and the Aussie dollar falling to fresh yearly lows.
ASX 200 Futures were up just 4 points or 0.06%.
Among stocks, Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) fell 1.57%, Woodside Petroleum Ltd (ASX:WPL) lost 0.51% and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) dipped 1.27% as oil prices traded near 3-month lows.
Financial heavyweights were mostly lower as Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG) lost 0.45%, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) fell 0.15%, while Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (ASX:CBA) and National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) added 0.23% and 0.15% respectively.
Technology names also suffered declines, with Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) down 0.65%, Technology One Ltd (ASX:TNE) losing 3.07%, Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC) falling 1.12%, while Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT) lost 1.55% and 2.01% respectively.
On the bond markets, the Australia 10-Year yields were at 1.722% while United States 10-Year rates were at 1.468%.
Among currencies, the AUD/USD was flat at 0.7125, holding just above yearly lows of 0.7063 touched overnight.
Among data, 203 AIG Manufacturing PMI Index rose to 54.8 in November, snapping four straight months of deceleration, while the The IHS Markit Australia Manufacturing PMI posted the strongest expansion in factory activity in 6 months amid easing COVID-19 restrictions in many parts of the country.
Meantime, Australia’s quarterly GDP release came in at -1.9%, better than the -2.7% expected by market analysts.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 was 0.06% lower at 12,713.