The Australian sharemarket had a skittish start to trading on Thursday after Wall Street wavered, with investors weighing the Federal Reserve’s interest rate outlook amid limited access to key economic data as the longest government shutdown in US history is nearing its end.

The S&P/ASX 200 dropped 20.3 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 8779.2 at 10.56am AEDT, with energy stocks, tech firms and the financial sector pacing the losses. The jittery morning comes after the local market lost 0.2 per cent on Wednesday. The Australian dollar was trading at US65.36¢.

Energy stocks were the biggest losers in early trade after oil dropped by the most since June as OPEC said global crude supplies surpassed demand sooner than anticipated. West Texas Intermediate slumped by 4.2 per cent overnight to sett

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