Despite the positive leads provided by Wall Street on Friday night, the local market is taking a beating this morning.

The XJO is currently down 75 points (-1.8%) with every sector enduring losses.

The IT, financial and energy sectors are the hardest hit, whilst defensive telcos and consumer staples are the best of a bad bunch.

In company news, Gunns has experienced a wild ride this morning after announcing it will sell down no-core assets and restructure its business as part of its exit from logging native forest in Tasmania.

At one stage the stock traded 14% lower but it has since recovered to currently be more than 7% stronger.

Around the region, Asian markets are all trading lower; the Hang Seng is down 2.3% whilst the Shanghai Composite is off 1.3%.