Stock markets around the world were dragged down by a plunge in oil prices, pessimism over the 'Trump tax cuts' and weak Chinese economic figures.
Oil and 'tax reform' weigh on markets
Falling oil prices have continued to drag down stock markets across Asia, Europe and the United States.
Brent crude has dropped by almost 5 per cent since last week, and weighed heavily on oil and gas stocks globally.
Oil prices continued to decline after the International Energy Agency cut its outlook for oil demand growth — in 2017 and 2018 — by 100,000 barrels per day.
As a consequence, energy was the worst-performing sector on the S&P 500, down by 1.1 per cent.
Nearly every sector on Wall Street finished in negative territory, with the next biggest losses coming from the utilities, consumer staples and mining sectors.
The broader US market was also weighed down by the market's concerns about whether President Donald Trump would be able to implement his much-touted corporate tax cuts any time soon.
There are currently two competing versions of the Republican tax bill.
The House of Representatives' version would introduce immediate corporate tax cuts, and reduce the number of tax brackets to four.
In contrast, the Senate's tax bill would delay tax cuts until 2019, and maintain the existing seven tax brackets.
The technology sector also slipped, pulled down by the share prices of Apple, Netflix and Google.
The Dow Jones and S&P 500 fell by 0.6 per cent each, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq index slipped by 0.5 per cent.
Asian markets weaker
Weak economic figures from China earlier this week also continued to weigh on global sentiment — as a slowdown in the Chinese economy would have flow-on effects internationally.
While the Shanghai Composite fell by 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped by 1 per cent.
As for the major stock index which experienced the biggest fall overnight, that honour goes to Japan's Nikkei — which plunged 1.6 per cent to a two-week low.
Investors decided to take their profits, particularly after a rally which pushed Japanese stocks about 20 per cent higher in the past two months.
Furthermore, its real GDP growth slowed to 0.3 per cent in the September quarter (compared to 0.6 per cent in the June quarter).
Nevertheless, Japan was still able to pull off seven straight quarters of GDP growth, with its economy now expanding by 1.4 per cent (on an annual basis).
Employment figures in focus
Despite the global sell-off, the Australian share market may open higher today.
ASX futures have risen by 0.4 per cent, while base metal prices have begun their recovery from yesterday's losses.
In local economic news, today's focus will be the Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) labour force report for October.
Reuters-polled economists are expecting the unemployment rate to remain steady at 5.5 per cent, and the creation of 17,500 new jobs.
On the other hand, National Australia Bank's forecast is a little less optimistic.
The bank is expecting "a below consensus print of +12,000 [jobs] with downside risks and an unchanged unemployment rate of 5.5 per cent," said NAB economist Tapas Strickland.
In addition, several large companies are also holding their annual general meetings today, including BHP, Commonwealth Bank, Harvey Norman, News Corp and Wesfarmers.
The Australian dollar weakened against several major currencies including the greenback.
The local currency fell to 75.9 US cents, after the Australian market digested the weak wage growth figures which the ABS released on Wednesday.
