News: BHP Australia shares slip as miners drag; Powell's speech in focus

	  Benchmark snaps 4-day winning streak 

	  All sub-indexes finish in red 

	  U.S. December inflation awaited 

(Updates to close)

Australian shares closed lower on Tuesday, with heavyweight mining stocks weighing the most after top customer China decided to step up efforts to regulate iron ore prices, while investors waited for the U.S. Federal Reserve chair's comments.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) finished 0.3% lower at 7,131.0 points, breaking a four-day winning streak.

All sub-indexes in Australia finished in the red, with miners .AXMM leading the fall by declining 0.7% on China potentially regulating prices of the steel-making ingredient to crack down on "malicious" price speculation.

Sector giants BHP Group (BHP) , Rio Tinto (RIO) , and Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) slid between 0.3% and 1%.

"The outlook for a lot of these commodity companies in Australia is probably going to be brighter since all big miners don't only depend on iron ore," Jessica Amir, market strategist at Saxo Capital Markets, said, playing down the session's weakness.

Investors are also keenly awaiting Fed chair Jerome Powell's speech at a central bank conference for clarity on the future of rate hikes.

Amir believes investors are preempting a decline in December inflation in the United States, due later in the week, adding "the Fed and RBA could potentially take the foot off the gas and remain a bit more dovish when it comes to rate hikes."

Local gold stocks .AXGD slipped 2.5%, with heavyweight Newcrest Mining (NCM) shedding 2.3%.

Financials .AXFJ logged 0.3% fall, with the "big four" banks loosing between 0.3% and 0.7%.

Energy stocks fell 0.3% after oil prices were little changed, giving up some of the gains from the previous session.

Woodside Energy (WDS) and Santos (STO) fell 0.1% and 0.9%, respectively.

Meanwhile, Australian government announced a proposal to make the country's top polluters slash their emissions by at least 30% over the next seven years.

Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) added 0.2% to finish the session at 11,665.26.