The Australian stock market has is little changed on Friday after a weak start following the negative cues overnight from Wall Street amid uncertainty about a new stimulus bill and on worries about the resurgence in coronavirus cases in Europe.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 3.40 points or 0.05 percent to 6,206.90, after touching a low of 6,192.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is edging up 0.80 points or 0.01 percent to 6,415.00. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.
Among the major miners, BHP Group is declining almost 1 percent and Rio Tinto is down 0.6 percent, while Fortescue Metals is advancing almost 1 percent.
Rio Tinto reported a 1 percent decrease in third-quarter iron ore production, while shipments were down 5 percent, but maintained its full-year production guidance across its key products.
Oil stocks are mostly lower after crude oil prices slipped overnight. Oil Search is down 0.7 percent and Santos is lower by 0.6 percent, while Woodside Petroleum is edging up 0.1 percent.
Gold miners are mixed after gold prices edged higher overnight. Newcrest Mining is adding 0.4 percent, while Evolution Mining is edging down 0.1 percent.
In the banking space, National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are higher in a range of 0.2 percent to 0.7 percent.
On Wall Street, stocks showed a significant recovery attempt after moving sharply lower in early trading on Thursday, but still ended in negative territory. The initial sell-off came amid uncertainty about a new stimulus bill and as a Labor Department report showed an unexpected increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended October 10. However, stocks rebounded well off their lows after Mnuchin told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that he and President Donald Trump are committed to getting a stimulus deal done.
While the Dow plunged by more than 330 points in early trading, the blue chip index ended the day down just 19.80 points or 0.1 percent to 28,494.20. The Nasdaq fell 54.86 points or 0.5 percent to 11,713.87 and the S&P 500 dipped 5.33 points or 0.2 percent to 3,483.34.
The major European showed significant moves to the downside on Thursday. While the German DAX Index plummeted by 2.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index plunged by 2.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slumped by 1.7 percent.
Crude oil prices rebounded after early weakness to pare most of their losses on Thursday, after data showed a larger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended October 9. WTI crude for November delivery still ended down $0.08 or nearly 0.2 percent at $40.96 a barrel.
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