What you need2know

SPI futures down 99 points or 1.9% to 4824

AUD up 0.4% to 70.83 US cents, 81.80 Japanese yen, 63.25 Euro cents and 49.08 British pence

On Wall St, S&P 500 -2.5%, Dow -1.8%, Nasdaq -2.7%

In Europe, Stoxx 50 -3.3%, FTSE -2.7%, CAC -3.2%, DAX -3.3%

In London, BHP -0.24%, Rio +1.24%

Spot gold up 2.1% to $US1195.25 at 7am in Sydney

Brent crude down 2.2% to $US32.86 at 7am in Sydney

Iron ore adds 0.5% to $US45.73 per tonne

What's on today

Australia NAB business survey. German Dec trade balance, UK Dec trade balance. US small business optimism index, US job openings, US wholesale inventories. Earnings: Coca-Cola, CVS Health, Viacom, Walt Disney, Agrium, Sanofi, UniCredit, Enel. International Petroleum Week begins in London. IEA monthly oil report.

Currencies

The yen strengthened to a one-year high, extending gains after its best week since 2009. The yen gained by at least 0.7 per cent against all 16 major counterparts, advancing to 115.46 per US dollar.

The euro advanced 0.3 per cent to $US1.1192, while the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slid 0.2 per cent, reversing an earlier gain.

US Treasuries climbed, as they continued to benefit from speculation a weaker global and domestic economy will delay an interest-rate increase by the Federal Reserve. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes fell ten basis points, or 0.1 percentage point, to 1.74 per cent.

Germany's government bonds advanced, pushing the two-year yield to the lowest on record. Germany's two-year note yield touched minus 0.519 per cent, the lowest since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 1990.

Commodities

Nickel bounced on Monday after touching its lowest in more than 12 years. Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange closed up 0.9 per cent at $US8230 a tonne, recovering after earlier tumbling 3.2 per cent to $US7900 a tonne, the weakest since April 2003. LME copper was the only LME metal ending weaker, dipping 0.4 per cent to $US4610 a tonne

Oil fell for a third day after no supply agreement emerged from Venezuela's tour of crude-producing nations. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi met his Venezuelan counterpart Sunday in Riyadh, the Middle East nation's Petroleum Ministry said in a statement. "The Saudis are the main obstacle to a cut," said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S. "They are buying time while we wait for the solid proof that US production is slowing."

Gold climbed to the highest level since June. Silver jumped to the highest level since November.

United States

US stocks tumbled, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index extending its two-day drop past 4 per cent, as waves of selling pushed bank shares to the lowest since 2013 and left the Nasdaq Composite Index within spitting distance of a bear market.

Amazon.com, Facebook and Google parent Alphabet slid, bringing declines since Thursday to 5.9 per cent or more in companies that held the market aloft in 2015. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group tumbled more than 6 per cent. The Nasdaq Biotech Index fell 4.5 per cent.

"The market is unforgiving, it's very nervous," said Philippe Gijsels, the chief strategy officer of BNP Paribas Fortis in Brussels. "It's just the same worries all over again: it's China, oil prices, and then you see confirmation in the economic figures. If clients are getting nervous and want to get some money off the table, it's very easy to sell the big names where there's still a lot of profit left than take a loss on the other names."

Europe

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid 3.5 per cent to 314.49 at 4.30pm in London and Greece's ASE Index plunged to its lowest level since 1990. No industry or market in western Europe was spared. While Greek lenders extended a record low, banks in the region headed for their lowest levels since 2012.

With a 7.9 per cent plunge today, Greece's ASE has once again become the year's worst performer of 93 global equity gauges tracked by Bloomberg. While national benchmark gauges of Italy and Spain lost at least 4.4 per cent, the slides weren't limited to so-called peripheral regions.

Germany's DAX Index fell 3.3 per cent, heading toward its lowest level since 2014. Commerzbank plunged 9.5 per cent to its lowest since August 2013 after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered its rating on the stock to the equivalent of a sell.

What happened yesterday

Shares closed flat, as buying in big miners offset losses in major banks led by ANZ and NAB, but investors chose to remain cautious with most regional markets closed due to the Chinese New Year's celebrations. The ASX slipped 0.02 per cent to 4975.4 after early in the session falling as low as 4925.8.