International markets suffered heavy falls on Friday night amid data showing that US jobs growth ground to a halt in August.

In Europe, the FTSE (-2.3%), CAC (-3.6%) and DAX (-3.4%) all endured broad-based sell-offs.

Stateside, the Dow Jones shed 253 points (-2.2%) to settle at 11240, whilst the S&P 500 gave up 2.5% and the Nasdaq lost 2.6%.

The non-farm payrolls numbers disappointed, remaining unchanged when job growth was expected.

It was the first time in almost a year that the US economy failed to add jobs on a month-to-month basis, with the unemployment rate remaining at 9.1%.

Gold rallied sharply on Friday night, benefitting from safe-haven buying amid collapsing equity markets. Bullion added 2.6% to settle at US$1877 an ounce.

Elsewhere, oil prices slumped due to demand concerns amid a slowing economy. Crude shed 2.8% to settle at US$86.45 a barrel.

Today's session will being us data in the form of the Melbourne Institute inflation gauge, 10:00am, AEST.

We will also be in receipt of ANZ job advertisements and company operating profits, at 11:30am, AEST.