At the closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 was 3.7 per cent lower at 7,649.60.
The Australian share market has plummeted nearly 5% over the past two days, driven by escalating US recession fears ignited by disappointing jobs data.
This sell-off is the worst since June 2022, with the tech sector and banks bearing the brunt of the decline. In contrast, ResMed shares surged following strong earnings results.
Futures
The Dow Jones futures are pointing to a fall of 428 points.
The S&P 500 futures are pointing to a fall of 154 points.
The Nasdaq futures are pointing to a fall of 1088.5 points.
The SPI futures are down 281 points.
Best and worst performers
All sectors are in the red. The sector with the fewest losses was Health Care, down 1.79 per cent. The worst-performing sector was Information Technology, down 6.61 per cent.
The only large cap in the black was ResMed (ASX:RMD), closing 2.92 per cent higher at $32.73.
The worst-performing large cap was WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC), closing 8.81 per cent lower at $84.26. It was followed by shares in GQG Partners (ASX:GQG) and NEXTDC (ASX:NXT).
Asian markets
Japan’s Nikkei has lost 12.97 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has lost 2.52 per cent.
China’s Shanghai Composite has lost 2.43 per cent.
Commodities and the dollar
Gold is trading at US$2,471.70 an ounce.
Iron ore is 1.2 per cent higher at US$103.55 a tonne.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a 2.75 per cent rise.
Light crude is trading $1.06 lower at US$72.46 a barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 64.20 US cents.