By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The ASX 200 was trading little changed at 7298.5 on Tuesday, following declines of 0.16% in the previous session as investor remained cautious amid growing concerns about the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant undercutting the economic rebound and a critical setback to U.S. President Joe Biden's social spending bill.
ASX 200 Futures were up just 0.06%.
Among stocks, major miners lifted on rising Iron ore prices, with Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) up 1.15%, BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) adding 0.68% and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) up 0.92%.
Gold miners were mostly higher with Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) up 0.86%, Perseus Mining Ltd (ASX:PRU) gaining 0.64%, Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) adding 2.28% while Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) added 0.08%.
Technology shares were mostly lower as Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) lost 0.98%, Novonix Ltd (ASX:NVX) shed 8.56%, Altium Ltd (ASX:ALU) lost 0.29%, Computershare Ltd. (ASX:CPU) fell 1.14%, Technology One Ltd (ASX:TNE) dropped 1.33% and Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT) declined 1.15%. However, Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) and Iress Ltd (ASX:IRE) bucked the trend, adding 1.64% and 0.79% respectively.
Financial heavyweight supported gains as Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG) added 0.24%, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) lifted 0.51%, Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (ASX:CBA) gained 0.05%, National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) added 0.42% and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) was up 0.33%.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year rates were at 1.575% while United States 10-Year yields held steady around 1.421%.
Coming up in the session the Reserve Bank of Australia is set to release the minutes from their latest policy meeting.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 fell 0.09% to 12,755.