Australian Market Edges Lower

The Australian stock market is edging lower on Monday after U.S. stocks fell on Friday reflecting a continued slump by technology stocks and the lack of progress on a U.S. stimulus package. Worries about the global economic recovery also weighed on the market.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 5.30 points or 0.09 percent to 5,859.20, after rising to a high of 5,868.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is lower by 6.70 points or 0.11 percent to 6,050.90. Australian stocks closed lower on Friday.

The major miners are weak. BHP Group is declining 0.5 percent, Rio Tinto is lower by 0.3 percent and Fortescue Metals is edging down 0.1 percent.

Gold miners are also declining despite an increase in gold prices on Friday. Newcrest Mining is losing more than 1 percent and Evolution Mining is lower by almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are lower in a range of 0.1 percent to 0.4 percent, while Westpac is rising 0.4 percent.

Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global is losing more than 1 percent and Afterpay is edging down 0.1 percent, while Appen is unchanged.

In the oil sector, Woodside Petroleum is adding 0.3 percent and Oil Search is unchanged, while Santos is down 0.6 percent even as crude oil prices edged higher on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks closed lower on Friday, extending the pullback seen over the two previous sessions partly due to a continued slump by technology stocks. Traders also continued to express renewed concerns about the economic outlook following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. With the elections less than two months away, lawmakers currently seem unlikely to pass another stimulus bill to help the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dow slid 244.56 points or 0.9 percent to 27,657.42, the Nasdaq tumbled 116.99 points or 1.1 percent to 10,793.28 and the S&P 500 slumped 37.54 points or 1.1 percent to 3,319.47.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on Friday. While the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 1.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index both slid by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Friday as prices edged up despite a surge in coronavirus cases raising uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery and causing worries about the outlook for energy demand. WTI crude for October added $0.14 or about 0.3 percent at $41.11 a barrel.