By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 was lower in Wednesday’s morning deals, falling 19.80 points or 0.27% to 7,358.60 following a flat close in the previous session as market participants tracked a decline on Wall Street overnight amid fresh U.S. inflation data and further spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
ASX 200 Futures were trading 0.07% higher.
Among stocks, financial companies pushed higher, with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) up 0.6%, National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) adding 0.4%, Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) up 0.86% and Bank Of Queensland Ltd. (ASX:BOQ) lifting 0.5%.
BNPL names traded lower, with Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT) down 2.1% and 2.65% respectively.
Real estate retreated after two sessions of strong gains, with Mirvac Group (ASX:MGR) down 0.34%, Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC) falling 0.82%, Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) down 2.32% and Stockland Corporation Ltd (ASX:SGP) shedding 1.8%.
information technology also dragged as Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) lost 1.66%, Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) fell 1.18%, Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC) lost 0.78%, Technology One Ltd (ASX:TNE) shed 2.9% and Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT) dropped 1.46%.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year yields were at 1.585% while United States 10-Year rates were at 1.441%.
Investors also remained wary after the U.S. Producer Price Index surged overnight, with NAB noting that "Higher producer prices can flow through to higher consumer prices, supporting our view that US inflation will not ease back to the FOMC’s 2 per cent per year target any time soon."
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 fell 0.64% to 12,847.