Back To Reality: Markets Tanking During New Era of Hope and Change

The Obama depression is underway.

THE dollar shed 2.7 per cent today as hope from Barack Obama's US election win turned to fear about the global economy.

At 5pm (AEDT), the Australian dollar was trading at 67.31 US cents, down almost two US cents from yesterday's close of 69.17 cents.

High-yielding currencies struggled today, causing the Australian dollar to hit an afternoon low of 66.83 as the local share market lost four per cent in the wake of a five per cent slide on Wall Street.

Forecast senior currency analyst Lee Wai Tuck said fading euphoria about Senator Obama's victory turned financial market focus back to a slowing world economy and the prospect of global rate cuts.

"After Obama's victory, the focus is back on economic worries again," he said from Singapore today.

"Australia is likely to slow down in the months ahead ... If the world economy slows down commodity prices come down."

European markets also tumble.

Isn't change wonderful?