International equities collectively peeled back overnight, halting the recent rally amid ongoing Greek debt concerns.

The weakness started during the Asian session yesterday and spread to Europe, where the FTSE gave up 108 points (-2%) and the CAC (-3%) and DAX (-2.8%) lost even more ground.

Stateside the Dow Jones gave up 108 points (-0.9%) to settle at 11401, whilst the S&P 500 lost 1% and the Nasdaq shed 0.4%.

At one point the Dow was down close to 200 points but comments from Greece's finance minister that talks with debt inspectors were 'productive and substantive' helped to calm investors.

The euro softened to an almost seven-month low against the greenback overnight, after eurozone officials failed last week to provide a plan to halt the region's debt crisis.

The Canadian dollar dropped the most in more than a month against the US dollar, as investors dumped higher yielding assets on eurozone debt concerns.

Commodities also took a hit overnight, falling the most in a month amid gains in the US dollar and decreased appetite for risk assets.

The S&P GSCI index fell 2.2%, the biggest decline since 18 August. Crude oil was a big loser, down 2.6%, whilst copper futures fell the most in 10-months.

In company news, NHC more than doubled its FY11 net profit to $503.1 million helped by sales of equity stakes in Arrow Energy and the Lenton coking coal mine.

Today's session will bring us data in the form of the RBA monetary policy meeting minutes, at 11:30am, AEST.