The Australian share market dropped $60 billion in value as markets throughout Asia followed United States investors in a mad scramble for the exits.

Key points: The local stock market has fallen by about $90 billion in two days

The local stock market has fallen by about $90 billion in two days The trend is likely to continue on Wednesday

The trend is likely to continue on Wednesday Every sector on the ASX 200 has been affected

Early futures trading on Wall Street indicate the carnage is likely to continue on Wednesday.

After the Dow Jones suffered its biggest points drop in a single day (1,175 points), the selling tsunami accelerated across the Pacific.

The benchmark ASX 200 index kept falling all day, ending down 3.2 per cent to 5,833 points, with almost every stock posting losses.

The broader All Ordinaries index dropped by 3.2 per cent to 5,930.

Japan's Nikkei slumped 6 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 4.5 per cent and in late trade, China's Shanghai composite was down 2.7 per cent.

This is a continuation of yesterday's steep losses, when the Australian share market plunged by $30 billion.

So far, the local stock market has fallen by about $90 billion in two days, and more than 5 per cent over the past month.

That trend is likely to continue on Wednesday with futures trading on all key US indices in the red.

Dow Jones futures -2.3 per cent

Dow Jones futures -2.3 per cent S&P500 futures -1.8 per cent

S&P500 futures -1.8 per cent Nasdaq futures -1.3 per cent

Which stocks were hit hardest?

Every sector on the ASX 200 has been impacted, with the worst performers being technology (down 5.1 per cent), energy (-4.5 per cent) and health care (-4.2 per cent).

The miners were comparatively better, down 2.5 per cent, after, in a rare bit of good news, iron ore and steel futures edged up in China.

Fortescue salvaged a 1 per cent loss while Rio Tinto was down 1.4 per cent and BHP dropped 2.7 per cent. Gold miners were generally spared the worst of the carnage.

The energy sectors big names have fallen sharply, with Origin Energy, Santos and Woodside Petroleum down by 6.7, 4.4 and 3.9 per cent respectively.

All the big four banks are being sold off — Commonwealth Bank (-3.1 per cent), Westpac (-3.1 per cent), NAB (-3 per cent) and ANZ (-3 per cent).

The Australian dollar fell to 78.60 US cents.

Retail and trade disappoint

On top of the downbeat day for stocks, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released some disappointing retails sales and international trade figures.

Retail sales fell 0.5 per cent in December, which was well below market expectations.

Reuters-polled economists were expecting a smaller drop of 0.2 per cent.

In comparison, the November retail sales lifted 1.2 per cent due to the one-off impact of Black Friday sales and release of the new iPhone X.

After such strong pre-Christmas sales, economists were widely expecting December sales to slip.

"A 0.5 per cent fall isn't too bad and the average [monthly] change for November and December is 0.4 per cent," Capital Economics' Paul Dales said.

"That's not great, but it is better than the average change of 0 per cent in the previous five months."

As for Australia's international trade position, it plunged to a $1.4 billion deficit in December, when economists were expecting a $200 million surplus.

The trade surplus was a rosier $36 million in November.

The deterioration of the trade balance in December was largely due to a 6 per cent jump in import values (over the last month).

Exports also increased, but by a less than anticipated 1.6 per cent.

"From a real GDP perspective, the fact that the trade balance has deteriorated in the face of rallying commodity prices suggests that net export volumes have been weaker than we had anticipated," JP Morgan's Tom Kennedy said.