From The Sydney Morning Herald:The Australian sharemarket today lost another $25 billion within minutes of opening as investors took flight from gathering gloom at home and abroad.
The Australian dollar also extended its steep slide sparked by yesterday's decision by the Reserve Bank to ignore gathering inflationary pressures and leave interest rates on hold. The dollar dipped to as low as $US1.072 in recent trading, almost 3 US cents down since the RBA call.
Australian shares were already poised to add to their sharp declines yesterday - which lopped about $19 billion off the market's value - after sharp falls on international markets overnight.
The global plunge came after US politicians agreed to a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling. Despite removing the possibility of the US defaulting on its debt obligations in the short term, the agreement wasn't enough to soothe fears among investors after an unexpected drop in consumer spending increased concern that growth in the world's largest economy was faltering.
Both key Australian share indicies, the ASX200 and the All Ordinaries, were down almost 2 per cent in early trading today as investors responded to the drop in sentiment, bringing to levels not seen since August last year.......read on
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