A mixed session on Wall Street is likely to send Australian stocks lower, while Australia's biggest bank, the Commonwealth Bank, saw its third-quarter cash profit fall 7 per cent.Disclaimer: thisCommonwealth Bank of Australia , the country's biggest lender, posted an around 7 per cent drop in its third-quarter cash earnings on Thursday, hurt by intense competition in mortgages and high operating costs.
The bank, which provides a limited quarterly trading update, said its net interest margins were slightly lower during the quarter from "continued competitive pressures and customers switching to higher yielding deposits". The other Wall Street benchmarks cooled a touch as momentum stalled and US Treasury yields rose on the day of a 10-year notes auction. The S&P 500 ended unchanged after four sessions of gains, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped to a second consecutive decline."We're just waiting for the next catalyst to jump-start the direction in the market, and we're probably going to get that next week," said Ameriprise Chief Market Strategist Anthony Saglimbene.
The S&P 500 has leveled off close to the 5,200 mark, which it last closed above on April 9. On Wednesday, it was hampered by sliding shares of Uber which posted a surprise quarterly loss and issued a downbeat forecast.