Jan 3 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell on Wednesday on broad-based selling led by financial and commodity stocks, tracking markets globally on waning investor optimism around the expected timeline of U.S. interest rate cuts ahead of a key jobs print later in the week.

The S&P/ASX 200 index declined 0.9% to 7,563.10, its biggest intra-day fall since mid-October, by 1159 GMT. The benchmark ended up 0.5% on Tuesday.

A Reuters poll shows economists expect 168,000 jobs were created in the U.S. last month, indicating a robust job market in the world's largest economy, adding to the argument against the need for rate cuts as early as March.

Rate-sensitive financial stocks dropped 0.7%, with the 'big four' banks falling between 0.7% and 1%.

Heavyweight miners lost 1.2%, as copper prices were under pressure due to a stronger U.S. dollar.

Mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto fell 0.9% and 1.2%, respectively.

Fortescue lost 1.2%, after the iron-ore miner said that multiple iron ore cars had been derailed from its tracks on Saturday at its Western Australia operations.

Gold stocks declined 2.1% on sliding bullion prices and dollar strength.

Top gold miner Northern Star Resources lost 2.8%, while Evolution Mining fell 2.6%

Energy stocks slipped 0.8%, following a drop in oil prices as supply concerns eased.

Information technology firms lost 1.6%, tracking a fall in their Wall Street peers, while health stocks were down 0.7%.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index dropped 0.4% to 11,720.71.

(Reporting by Aaditya Govind Rao in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)