The Australian share market finished off its lows after the Reserve Bank kept official interest rates on hold and tech stocks tumbled after a sell off on Wall Street amid continued worries about rising inflation and a potential United States debt default.

The market fell as much as 1 per cent before recovering from its losses in the afternoon. 

The All Ordinaries index ended down 0.5 per cent, to 7,537.

The ASX 200 dropped 0.4 per cent, to 7,248, with most sectors in the red. 

After the close of trade, law firm Slater and Gordon announced it was launching a class action lawsuit against dairy firm A2 Milk, on behalf of investors who bought shares over a nine-month period, during which the infant formula maker posted four earnings downgrades.

'No surprises' from RBA's 'boring' meeting

There were no surprises coming out of the Reserve Bank's monthly board meeting today.

It kept the cash rate target at 0.1 per cent for another month.

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The RBA decided to continue purchasing $4 billion of government securities a week until at least mid-February next year.

And it has maintained the 0.1 per cent target for Australian government bonds.

All three measures are designed to keep the level of interest rates lower than otherwise in Australia's economy, to support economic activity and states enduring lockdowns.

The cash rate target has been at a record low of one-tenth of a percentage point, or 10 basis points, for 11 months now.

RBA governor Philip Lowe reiterated the official cash rate would stay at 0.1 per cent until 2024 at the earliest, unless conditions cause the level of inflation to rise sustainably above the central bank's  2-3 per cent inflation range before then.

Dr Lowe says the Delta outbreak in New South Wales and Victoria has interrupted the recovery of Australia's economic recovery and gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to have declined materially in the September quarter.

However, he still thinks the setback in the economic recovery will only be temporary.

Dr Lowe said he was conscious that historically low interest rates were supporting rapid increases in house prices.

He said the Council of Financial Regulators had been discussing the medium-term risks to macroeconomic stability and rapid credit growth, and he reminded banks to keep their lending standards responsible.

The Reserve Bank is concerned about booming home values because property prices have surged by 25 per cent over the past year because of government stimulus and record low interest rates, propping up the housing market.

Commonwealth Bank senior economist Kristina Clifton said in an economic note that she expected regulators to take action to cool red hot prices.

National Australia Bank's director of economics and markets, Tapas Strickland, said there was a chance that the Reserve Bank could raise borrowing costs sooner rather than later because of moves by central banks overseas in response to rising global inflation. 

"NAB's view remains of the RBA being on hold until 2024, though markets will continue to price the risk of the RBA moving in 2023."

Ahead of the RBA decision, economist Stephen Koukoulas said he expected the meeting to be "boring". 

Both the share market and the Australian dollar were little changed after the RBA kept rates on hold.

At 4:45pm AEDT, the local currency was buying around 72.53 US cents, down 0.4 per cent. 

Oil stocks were higher after energy prices rose to a three-year high overnight. 

Brent crude oil rose 2.5 per cent, to $US81.26 a barrel overnight after major oil producers OPEC confirmed they would stick to their current output policy as demand for fuel rebounds. 

Spot gold rose 0.4 per cent overnight, to $US1,767.39 an ounce, which boosted gold miners on the market but it pulled back in today's trade to $US1756.05, down 0.7 per cent. 

Leading the ASX 200 gainers were gold miners Gold Road Resources (+7,2pc), Silver Lake Resources (+5.7pc), and oil giant Woodside Petroleum (+4pc).

Tech stocks tracked Wall Street lower, with buy now, pay later firm Zip (-4.8pc), tourism firm Sealink Travel Group (-6.3pc), and artificial intelligence firm Appen (-5pc).

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia made a record trade surplus in August, boosted by LNG and coal exports, despite a pullback in iron ore prices.

ANZ said consumer confidence rose 0.9 per cent last week, the fourth consecutive week of small gains.

Confidence increased in Sydney, Melbourne and regional South Australia, while it fell in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.

Wall Street takes a fall

US investors dumped big tech firms and other growth stocks as yields on US government Treasury bonds rose on worries about rising inflation.

The Dow Jones index fell 0.9 per cent, to 34,003, the S&P 500 lost 1.3 per cent, to 4,300, and the Nasdaq slid 2.1 per cent, to 14,255.

Apple and Amazone (both down 3 per cent), Microsoft (-2.4pc), and Alphabet (-2.1pc), the US stock market's four most-valuable companies, all dropped.

Facebook, the fifth-most valuable company, slumped 4.9 per cent after its app, its photo-sharing platform Instagram, and messaging service WhatsApp, suffered a major outage.

Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Wealth Advisors in the US, said the technology sector was seeing a market correction. 

"Rates were clearly too low, due in large part to central bank policies, and now as investors anticipate those policies getting clawed back, rates are moving closer to their real value." 

US Treasury yields rose as investors fretted about the lack of a debt ceiling fix in the US Congress and looked ahead to the release this week of September employment data, which could pave the way for the tapering of Federal Reserve asset purchases.

US President Joe Biden says he cannot guarantee the government will not breach its $US28.4 trillion ($39 trillion) debt limit unless Republicans join Democrats in voting to raise it, as the United States faces the risk of a default in just two weeks.

Recent data showing increased consumer spending, accelerated factory activity and elevated inflation growth have fuelled bets that the US Federal Reserve could start tightening its accommodative monetary policy sooner than expected.

Wall Street's main indexes were battered in September, hit by worries including the fate of a massive infrastructure spending bill and the meltdown of heavily indebted China Evergrande Group.

The S&P 500 has fallen about 5 per cent from its record high close on September 2. 

Nearly two-thirds of S&P 500 stocks have declined 10 per cent or more from their 52-week highs, including 73 stocks down more than one-fifth.

Spooking investors further, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank president James Bullard warned that inflation could remain elevated for some time.

Some pockets of the market enjoyed a bounce, with energy stocks and utilities gaining. 

Tesla rose 0.8 per cent after the electric vehicle maker reported record quarterly deliveries that beat estimates.

The FTSE 100 index fell 0.2 per cent, to 7,011, the DAX in Germany lost 0.8 per cent, to 15,037, and the CAC 40 in France fell 0.6 per cent, to 6,478.