By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 declined 36.8 points or 0.5% to 7,090.9 after the first hour of Thursday’s trade, snapping three sessions of consecutive gain as market participants monitor earnings reports from local companies ahead of key unemployment data set to be released later in the session.
ASX 200 Futures were trading 0.2% lower.
Among stocks, Information Technology led declines, down 1.6% as Block Inc (ASX:SQ2) lost 5.6%, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) fell 2%, Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) dipped 3.5%, Novonix Ltd (ASX:NVX) fell 4.4%, Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX:BRN) lost 1.9% and Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) shed 5.9%.
Utilities were down 2.9%, with Mercury NZ Ltd (ASX:MCY) down 2.9% and AGL Energy Ltd (ASX:AGL) falling 1.8%, while Origin Energy Ltd (ASX:ORG) shed 6.7% after reporting a $1.43 billion loss and warning that market conditions remain too uncertain to give guidance on earnings for the year ahead.
Meantime, Energy lifted 1.5%, with Woodside Energy Ltd (ASX:WDS) adding 1.4%, Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) up 2%, Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) lifting 0.5% and Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX:VEA) up 1.1%.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year rates were at 3.363% while United States 10-Year yields were at 2.88%.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 dipped 0.4% to 11,801.8.