Markets Live: ASX opens near 12-month low

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Australian shares have sold off at the open and are hovering near a 12-month low.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is down 95.3 points, or 1.6 per cent, at 5733.7.

BHP Billiton is weighing heavily, down 2.9 per cent, CSL is down 1.7 per cent and the major banks are all down more than 1 per cent.

Bellamy's Australia is down 7.5 per cent, Xero has fallen 5.5 per cent, Appen is down 4.9 per cent and Emeco Holdings is down 4.6 per cent.

Newcrest Mining is leading the market with 0.6 per cent advancing, while St Barbara is up 1.9 per cent and Resolute Mining has climbed 2.2 per cent.

There are just six stocks trading higher this morning.

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Global markets shook overnight and a late tumble on Wall Street has the ASX set up for heavy falls this morning, writes Kyle Rodda.

Volatility is still elevated. It's one moment up and one moment down. Price action and sentiment is shifting all in the space of a single session. The extreme vacillations in price and sentiment are wrung by the twisting fortunes of the global economy's two major forces: the Chinese and US economies. Day-to-day, markets are playing out like a game of pong, with one side rising only to strike the ball in the opposite direction to send the other diving lower. Once again, a sharp rally in China's equities just prior to its lunch break yesterday fizzled throughout the day, to the chagrin of non-plussed European and North American equity traders. The remainder of Thursday's session since has seen a sea of red, as the bears one again have-their-way with the market.

Read the full 8@eight here.

Here are the overnight market highlights:

SPI futures down 92 points or 1.6% to 5702 at 7.10am AEDT

AUD -0.3% to 70.62 US cents

On Wall St near 4pm: Dow -2.4% S&P 500 -2.7% Nasdaq -4.4%

In New York, BHP -4.5% Rio -3.9% Atlassian -7.4%

In Europe: Stoxx 50 -0.3% FTSE +0.1% CAC -0.3% DAX -0.7%

Spot gold +0.1% to $US1230.88 an ounce at 2.24pm New York time

Brent crude +0.1% to $US76.49 a barrel

US oil +1% to $US67.07 a barrel

Iron ore +0.6% to $US74.73 a tonne

Dalian iron ore +1.4% to 535 yuan

LME aluminium -0.2% to $US1998 a tonne

LME copper -0.3% to $US6179 a tonne

2-year yield: US 2.83% Australia 2.00%

5-year yield: US 2.94% Australia 2.20%

10-year yield: US 3.10% Australia 2.66% Germany 0.39% Italy 3.60%

US-Australia 10-year yield gap at 6.39am AEDT: 44 basis points

Australian shares are poised to drop 1.5 per cent at the open, taking their direction from renewed selling on Wall Street. ASX futures were down 92 points or 1.6 per cent at 7.10am AEDT. The Australian dollar slid 0.3 per cent.

Shares fell broadly and deeply on Wall Street, though the tech sector was particularly hard hit and the Nasdaq sank 4.4 per cent.

There was no one catalyst for the selling.

Disappointing earnings from AT&T and Texas Instruments drove declines in the communications and semiconductor groups, offsetting a promising outlook from Boeing.

"There's just right now a heightened sensitivity to what can go wrong," Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward D. Jones & Co, said in an interview at Bloomberg's New York headquarters. "So we will have more of these days where stocks move a lot within the day as everyone's trying to sort through what do today's reports mean."

The yield on the US 10-year note dropped 6 basis points to 3.11 per cent.

Timothy Moore has the full story here.