By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 traded lower on Tuesday, touching 7-week lows in early deals and tracking declines in US equities as a sharp rise in COVID-19 Delta infections across the world sparked fears of fresh shutdowns and a protracted economic recovery. Locally, New South Wales reported 78 new local cases, while Victoria recorded 13 cases as health authorities extended lockdown restrictions for a further week. South Australia also began a week-long lockdown after reporting five cases.
On the policy front, minutes from the latest Reserve Bank of Australia meeting showed that officials agreed to continue purchasing government bonds after the current program ends in early September at a reduced rate of A$4 billion per week until at least mid November 2021, while maintaining the cash rate at 0.1%.
Among stocks, BHP fell 1.66% despite shipping a record-breaking amount of iron ore from its Australian mines over the past year, while Beach Energy Ltd slipped 3.12% after an agreement between OPEC+ members to boost production sent crude prices lower.
Local 10-year bonds yields were at 5-month lows of 1.188%, while US 10-year rates were yielding 1.212%.
Investors will also be looking ahead to retail sales data released on Wednesday, as well as preliminary services and manufacturing PMIs due later in the week.