Local stocks fall after Wall St plunge
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About 11.00am AEDT, the All Ordinaries Index was down 92 points to 3,235. (ABC News)
Australian shares have fallen nearly 3 per cent after Wall Street plunged on worries about the US car industry and fears of a global recession.
The big miners and the big banks have taken a hit.
About 11.00am AEDT, the All Ordinaries Index was down 92 points to 3,235.
The ASX 200 lost 100 points to 3,253.
The Australian dollar was buying about 60.9 US cents.
Overnight, Wall Street was boosted after a group of US senators said a bipartisan deal had been reached on a bill to rescue the "Big Three" US carmakers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
General Motors shares rallied more than 40 per cent.
But then the US Democrats said there was no deal and shares continued their downward spiral.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits rose to a 26-year high and an index of factory conditions in the Philadelphia region fell to an 18-year low in November.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank to a fresh five-and-a-half year low, losing 444.99 points (5.56 per cent) to close at 7,552.29.
The Nasdaq lost 70.30 points (5.07 per cent) to 1,316.12 and the Standard & Poor's 500 plummeted 54.14 points (6.71 per cent) to a preliminary close of 752.44, the lowest finish since April 1997.
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