The ASX has clawed back $15b throughout the day's trade. We're sitting at a loss of $20b with an hour to go

Here's business reporter Stephen Letts' take on this afternoon's events:

"Reprising the role of 'the brave little engine that could', the ASX is showing its bigger, wealthier bourse in New York the value of not giving up and a little bit of optimism," he said.

"After being rudely shoved out of bed by Wall Street's unhappy, downward-spiraling night and waking up 1.7 per cent lower, the ASX has battled back and is now just under 1.1 per cent down.

"In other words, it has clawed back $15 billion of the $35 billion it dropped on opening.

In the more ruthless terms of the market, greed is fighting back against fear.

"The fightback is being led by bargain hunters seeing value at these levels and scooping up shares dropped by the more fearful as they ran for the exit.

"Actually the sellers were probably just taking a few profits, but that is not so dramatic.

"The argument is, 'things aren't that crook'.

"The economic fundamentals are OK, well, that's what the RBA reckons at least."

