Jan 30 (Reuters) - Australian shares inched lower on Monday, with heavyweight miners leading the fall, while insurers also dropped after saying they had received thousands of claims from flood-hit customers in New Zealand.
The S&P/ASX 200 index slipped 0.1% to 7,484.8 by 00:50 GMT, with investors globally awaiting a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting due later in the week for clues on further interest rate hikes.
U.S. consumer spending fell for a second straight month in December, putting the economy on a lower growth path heading into 2023, while inflation continued to subside, which could give the Fed room to further slow the pace of its rate hikes this week.
In Australia, miners fell 0.8%, with behemoths BHP Group and Rio Tinto down 0.7% and 1.6%, respectively.
Rio Tinto's iron ore division chief, Simon Trott, apologised after a contractor hired by the mining giant lost a radioactive capsule in transit in Western Australia, which sparked a radiation alert across parts of the state.
Financials inched lower 0.3%, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac trading in negative territory.
Energy stocks climbed 0.8%, with sector major Woodside up 0.7%, while tech stocks advanced as much as 2.6% after Wall Street closed sharply higher on Friday.
Lynas Rare Earths rose as much as 3.4% after reporting a 14.8% jump in second-quarter revenue from growing demand for specialised metals used in components of electric vehicles.
Insurers Suncorp Group and Insurance Australia Group fell 3.0% and 4.1%, respectively, after the companies said their New Zealand divisions had cumulatively received more than 8,000 claims so far following severe storms and flooding across the country.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.1% to 12,045.21 by 00:17 GMT. (Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
