The Australian share market closed lower after little direction from Wall Street where trading was thin due to a public holiday. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 79.3 points, or 1.69 per cent, at 4,618.2 points while the broader All Ordinaries index shed 75.8 points, or 1.59 per cent, to 4,686.3 points. On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract was 82 points lower at 4,633 points, with 36,327 contracts traded.

Among retail stocks, Coles owner Wesfarmers was down 71 cents, or 2.11 per cent, at $32.91, Woolworths gave up 22 cents to $28.98 and Harvey Norman eased nine cents, or 2.45 per cent, to $3.59. The most traded stock by volume was Avanco Resources, with 186.6 million shares worth $40.49 million changing hands. Shares in Avanco were up two cents, or 11.11 per cent, at 20 cents, after the copper and nickel explorer announced spectacular copper assays from its Rio Verde project in Brazil. Preliminary market turnover was 2.65 billion securities worth $5.17 billion, with 402 stocks up, 733 down and 354 unchanged.

The Australian dollar fell in Asian trade Tuesday as investors treaded lightly ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve's October meeting minutes later in the trading day and key Chinese data due on Wednesday. Australian bonds pushed higher, though the move did little to change a more than six week fall in bond prices. After rallying since the start of September in a move that picked up even more extensively in the last few sessions, those betting on the Australian dollar pared down some of their positions Tuesday. In addition, traders that have been placing short bets on the U.S. dollar also pared back some of that positioning. Notably, speculators last week held the largest short U.S. dollar position since November 2007. Making traders somewhat nervous is the release of several key Chinese data points on Wednesday, as well as the Fed's November policy meeting minutes, which will be watched closely for any signs of more quantitative easing. The Australian dollar was at $0.9790, down from $0.9870 late Monday. The Australian dollar also traded at 80.255, from 80.905.