Australian Market Slides in Early Trade (2% drop on opening)

The Australian share market fell steeply in the opening minutes of trade this morning as investors factored in the impact of Europe's debt turmoil and the US credit downgrade.

The market opens in alphabetical order, and BHP Billiton and some of the major banks have hinted at falls of around 2 per cent on the broader market. Earlier New Zealand's main share index had opened around 2 per cent lower, but was down 3.25 per cent just before 10:00am (AEST).

Futures trading for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all fell more than 2.5 per cent this morning, in the first US trading since Standard and Poor's downgraded the US credit rating to AA+. The Australian dollar was slightly lower at 104 US cents.

Looks like the downgrade is really affecting things. First Israel takes a big blow which resulted in a suspension, now Australia takes a bit of a hiccup. Hopefully things mellow out, but something tells me this is only the beginning.

This doesn't bode well for the U.S. come tomorrow.

ABC News

Australian Securities Exchange

Yes just the start down here,market has only been open half an hour.More to come by close.Tomorrow will be a greater teller of what is to come.Good bye middle class.Large job lay off''s here already.One business 200 gone just in my small city this morning.