Australian shares fall for fourth session as miners weigh

Australian shares tracked Wall Street losses to drop on Friday, with mining stocks declining the most, a day after the country's jobless rate posted a shock decline in November and prompted investors to scale back their February interest rate cut bets.

The S&P/ASX 200 index XJO fell 0.7% to 8,276.5 points as of 0010 GMT, in its fourth consecutive session of losses. The benchmark is down about 1.6% for the week, set for its worst weekly fall since early August.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI also fell 0.53% overnight, the S&P 500 SPX lost 0.54% to 6,051.25 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC lost 0.66% as investors evaluated key economic data ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.

Meanwhile, data showing surprising strength in the labour market on Thursday has prompted markets to scale back bets for an easing from the Reserve Bank of Australia in February, just days after the central bank unexpectedly turned dovish by opening the door to a rate cut.

Miners XXMM lost 1.7%, with Rio Tinto RIO and BHP Group BHP down 2% and 1.3%, respectively.

The sub-index was, however, set for its fourth straight weekly gain, thanks to the bumper 3.5% gain on Tuesday after China first announced measures to reinvigorate its economy.

Rate-sensitive financials XFJ fell 0.3%, on track to post their third week of losses.

Gold stocks XGD dropped as much as 3% — their biggest intraday drop in four weeks — as bullion slipped off five-week highs.

Northern Star Resources NST and Evolution Mining EVN retreated 2.8% and 3.8%, respectively.

Healthcare stocks XHJ dropped 0.6%, while real-estate stocks (.AXRE) slipped 0.8%.

In company news, Insignia Financial IFL received an A$2.6 billion ($1.66 billion) takeover offer from private equity firm Bain Capital. It rose as much as 9.6%, and was among the top gainers on the benchmark index.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index NZ50G rose 0.1% to 12,699.53 points.

($1 = 1.5704 Australian dollars)