By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The ASX 200 traded lower on Thursday, down 15.60 points or 0.21% to 7,433.10 as market participants tracked Wall Street lower overnight, while falling commodity prices, surging yields and yesterday’s higher than expected inflation reading also dented risk sentiment.
ASX 200 Futures were trading 28 points or 0.38% higher.
Among stocks, Coles Group Ltd (ASX:COL) was up 0.75% after reporting its first-quarter sales results, with online sales up 48% for the period. Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) and BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) lost 0.95% and 0.72% respectively, while Fortescue (ASX:FMG) was up 0.5% after reporting record iron ore shipments for the September quarter. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) however dipped 10.24%. Energy companies were generally lower with Woodside Petroleum Ltd (ASX:WPL) down 1.44%, Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) falling 0.97% and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) down 2.61%.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year yields were at fresh 7-month highs of 1.841% while United States 10-Year rates eased to 1.548%.
Meantime, yesterday’s inflation data showed the annual rate of underlying inflation - which smooths out excessive price swings and is linked to interest rate decisions made by the RBA - unexpectedly jumped to 2.1 per cent.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 was 0.45% lower at 12961.