Energy companies (down 1.4 per cent) dragged the benchmark index lower following a decline in Brent Crude oil prices overnight.

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Sector heavyweight Woodside (down 1.8 per cent) lost ground, along with coal miners Yancoal (down 2.1 per cent) and Whitehaven (down 3 per cent).

Miners (down 0.8 per cent) were also a drag on the key index, with South32 declining 2.4 per cent, iron ore heavyweight Fortescue losing 2.1 per cent and gold miner Evolution sliding 2 per cent.

Aristocrat Leisure (down 1.4 per cent) and JB Hi-Fi (down 2.2 per cent) weighed down the consumer discretionary sector, which ended down 0.8 per cent.

The lowdown

Commodity prices were a major drag for the market, with energy stocks slipping on the back of a drop in oil prices, while a decline in Singapore iron ore futures weighed on the major miners, including index heavyweights BHP and Fortescue.

The big four banks were all in the red midway through the trading session but clawed back most of their losses late in the day.

US stocks extended their push to into record territory, led by big gains for chipmakers.

The S&P 500 Index rose 0.3 per cent to post a new peak for a third straight trading session. Three out of every four stocks in the index gained ground.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7 per cent and the technology heavy Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 0.2 per cent. Both indexes added to records set a day earlier.

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Treasury yields were mostly steady a day after the Federal Reserve said it still expects to make three interest rate cuts this year. That helped calm some worries on Wall Street that it may pull some early cuts off the table following some hotter-than-expected recent inflation reports. Wall Street now expects the Fed to start cutting rates in June.

Some reports suggested the US economy is doing better than expected. Fewer US workers filed for unemployment benefits last week – a signal of a remarkably resilient job market.

A measure of manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region unexpectedly grew, while a preliminary look at manufacturing nationwide was also better than expected.

Wall Street will receive a major inflation update next week when personal consumption and expenditures data for February is released – the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation.

Tweet of the day

Quote of the day

“There’s probably more value in this building than any other in Australia,” said a gold seller behind the counter at Bullion Now, as the precious metal they sell went on a record run.

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