International markets closed another tough week on a soft note on Friday.

In Europe the FTSE lost more than 1%, whilst the CAC (-1.9%) and DAX (-2.2%) were even harder hit.

Stateside, the losses were on par with those in Europe; the Dow shed 173 points (-1.6%), whilst the S&P 500 (-1.5%) and tech-heavy Nasdaq (-1.6%) endured similar declines.

US markets suffered a fourth straight weekly slump, with the cheapest price-earnings ratios since 2009 failing to lure investors.

The S&P 500 has now fallen 18% from close to a three-year high on 29 April, amid ongoing concerns about Europe's debt crisis and a global economic slowdown.

The yen rallied to the strongest level against the US dollar since World War II on Friday night whilst the euro added 0.5% against the greenback, erasing earlier losses amid speculation the US Fed will consider measures to help ease market turmoil.

Oil posted a fourth consecutive weekly decline and slipped below $80 a barrel at one point before bouncing back to settle at US$82.41.

Gold continued its recent strong run, adding 1.7% to settle at US$1852.20 an ounce after earlier trading at another record high of US$1887.63.

In company news, CTX reported a 24% fall in 1H profit, in line with guidance. The company was hit by high oil prices, a strong Aussie dollar and refinery outages.

OST posted an FY net loss of $1.05 billion and will close one of its two blast furnaces and abandon its export business.

There is no major local data due out for today's session.