The Australian share market has lost ground following a slide on Wall Street, and big miner BHP expects the global economy to slow down in the coming year because of inflation and the war in Ukraine. 

The local market traded mainly in the red as losses in healthcare, education, technology, resources and financial stocks, offset gains in the energy and utilities sectors.

By the close, the All Ordinaries index fell 0.5 per cent, to 6,853, while the ASX 200 index dropped 0.6 per cent, to 6,650.

Nine sectors and 118 stocks finished lower, with miners failing to hold onto their early gains. 

The best performers on the ASX 200 were lithium brine miner Lake Resources (+13.6 per cent), investment firm Pendal Group (+7.8 per cent), and coal firm Whitehaven Coal (+5.3 per cent).

Leading the losers on the ASX 200 were cloud provider Xero (-6 per cent), online bookmaker Pointsbet (-6 per cent), and payments company EML Payments (-5 per cent).

ANZ sees rates above 3pc

ANZ bank economists now predict that the Reserve Bank will lift official interest rates by four times over the next four months.

The bank's head of Australian economics, David Plank, said in an economic note that the ANZ economic team expects four more 0.50-percentage-point rate rises by the RBA, with the official cash rate to reach 3.35 per cent by November this year. 

Previously, ANZ economists did not expect official rates to reach more than 3 per cent until late 2023.

The Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and National Australia Bank are predicting that official rates will reach 2.6 per cent. 

Meanwhile, the Australian dollar rose after the release of the minutes from the Reserve Bank's board meeting earlier this month, where it raised interest rates by 0.5 percentage points, to 1.35 per cent. 

In the minutes, the central bank said that more interest rate rises were needed to contain inflation. 

At 4:30pm AEST, the local currency was up 0.6 per cent, to 68.52 US cents. 

Bitcoin was up 2.6 per cent, to $US21,968 per digital coin. 

Spot gold was down 0.05 per cent, to $US1708.04 an ounce, while the global benchmark, Brent crude oil, rose 0.2 per cent to $US106.44 a barrel.

BHP warning

BHP joined Rio Tinto in giving a dire warning about the global economy as global miners struggle with inflation, COVID-19, absent workers and the global supply chain squeeze. 

In its fourth-quarter production report, BHP said iron ore, copper, and coal production rose over the June quarter from the March quarter, and it had made record sales for West Australian iron ore over the year. 

Overall, iron production was flat over the year to June, at 253.2 million tonnes.

The company also mined a record amount of copper ore at its Escondida mine in Chile.

BHP chief executive Mike Henry gave a warning for the year ahead about market volatility and the impact of inflation on the global economy partly because of the conflict in Ukraine. 

"Broader market volatility continues and we expect the lag effect of inflationary pressures to continue through the 2023 financial year, along with labour market tightness and supply chain constraints," Mr Henry said in BHP's production report. 

Mr Henry also said the miner was assessing the impact of the increase in coal royalties by the Queensland government. 

"The near tripling of top-end royalties has worsened what was already one of the world's highest coal royalty regimes, threatening investment and jobs in the state," he said.

Mr Henry said BHP's $US5.7 billion Jansen potash project in Canada was tracking to plan and the miner was hoping to bring forward first production to 2026. 

BHP shares lost their early gains and closed down nearly 1 per cent, to $36.61. 

JB HiFi online sales soar 

Electronics retailer JB HiFi saw unaudited annual net profit rise by 7.7 per cent, to nearly $545 million, with online sales up by half, to $1.6 billion.

Online sales represented nearly 18 per cent of total sales. Overall sales for the chain were up 3.5 per cent, to $9.2 billion. 

JB Hifi shares gained 2.2 per cent, to $41.76. 

Wall Street slides 

US stocks ended lower after bank stocks erased their gains and shares of tech giant Apple fell on a Bloomberg report saying the company planned to slow hiring and spending growth next year. 

Apple shares dropped 2 per cent, to $US147.07. 

Goldman Sachs warned it may slow hiring and cut expenses after reporting that quarterly profit fell by almost half, while a Bloomberg report said that Apple was planning to do the same next year. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 216 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 31,073, the S&P 500 index lost 32 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 3,831, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.8 per cent, to 11,360.

Shares gained ground in Europe.  

In London, the FTSE 100 index rose 0.9 per cent, to 7,223, the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.9 per cent, to 6,092, while the DAX in Germany rose 0.7 per cent, to 12,960. 

Spot gold fell 0.2 per cent, to $US1705.49, at 10:20am AEST, while Brent crude oil was down 0.7 per cent, to $US105.51 a barrel, coming off its $US5 rise the previous day. 

Crude oil rallied after Saudi Arabia declined to make any promises about future output increases

ABC/Reuters