It has been a disappointing day for global stock markets — with Asian and European markets closing lower, and Wall Street putting in a mixed performance.
What happened on Wall Street?
This morning's US trading session happens to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Black Monday crash.
It was the worst day in Wall Street's history, during which the Dow Jones and S&P 500 plunged by more than 20 per cent each.
But today's losses were nowhere near those extreme levels. The Nasdaq slid 0.3 per cent to 6,599 due to a tech sell-off, particularly Apple stocks.
Apple's share price fell by 2.5 per cent over speculation of poor demand and production cuts of its new iPhone 8.
Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google shares also took a tumble.
United Airlines shares fell sharply, by 12 per cent, after it released some underwhelming profit results.
The Dow Jones and S&P 500 spent most of the day in negative territory.
However, they managed to erase those losses in the final minutes of trade, and the Dow finished 5 points higher — barely closing at a fresh record.
Australian market today
SPI futures have slipped by 0.3 per cent, which indicates the Australian share market may open lower today.
Adding to that picture, the prices of Brent crude and iron ore have also dropped — by 1.6 and 2.9 per cent respectively.
This fall in commodity prices is expected to put pressure on energy and mining stocks.
The Australian dollar has lifted against the greenback, and is buying 78.6 US cents.
However, the local currency rose to a 15-month high against the New Zealand dollar, which fell sharply due to uncertainty over its policy outlook.
On Thursday, Labour leader Jacinda Arden was announced as NZ's next Prime Minister after forming a coalition government with New Zealand First.
This occurred almost one month after NZ's general election, which yielded no decisive result.
"With little policy detail to go on, it’s no surprise the market took its cue from the pre-election policies of both parties and sold on the news," said NAB's Tapas Stickland.
"It’s likely a Labour-NZ First government will ramp up spending, immigration could be reduced in some way which could tighten the labour market at the margin, and the minimum wage could be hiked as well."
