July 12 (Reuters) - Australian shares look to start lower on Thursday, mirroring turmoil in global equity markets spurred by prospects of a Sino-U.S. trade war.
Australian commodity stocks might bear the brunt of the fall as oil and base metal prices also slumped after Washington threatened to impose tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. O/R MET/L
The local share price index futures YAPcm1 fell 0.1 percent or 8 points, to 6,166. The benchmark .AXJO lost 0.7 percent on Wednesday.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 was 0.2 percent or 14.65 points lower to 8,986.74 at 1009 GMT.