The Australian share market fell more than one per cent in morning trade, following losses on Wall Street on poor jobs data.
At 1200 AEST the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 54.8 points, or 1.41 per cent, at 3822.5 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was off 52.9 points, or 1.37 per cent, at 3822.3 points.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was 75 points lower at 3786 on a volume of 11,184 contracts.
A director at EL&C Baillieu Stockbroking, Richard Morrow, said a poor lead from Wall Street and the impending Independence Day holiday in the US had helped push the Australian bourse down.
"The market is very, very soggy today," Mr Morrow said.
"There are a couple of overhanging factors.
"The US market is closed tonight for the Independence Day holiday, then we have the weekend, so there is really not a lot of enthusiasm for buying anything today on the basis that you will be able to buy it a bit cheaper on Monday," he said.
Mr Morrow said the US market had been depressed by poor jobless figures, which showed US unemployment rising 0.1 point to 9.5 per cent, with about 467,000 jobs shed in June.
"The unemployment numbers were worse than expected, but in the scheme of things what you get at the bottom of the market is a lot of volatility," Mr Morrow said.
At 1203 AEST, shares in global miner BHP Billiton were down one dollar to $33.30 while other miners also were weaker.
Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto was in a trading halt as its bank underwriters offload shares that were not taken up under its Australian equity raising.
"Rio Tinto hasn't traded yet, and you would expect them to be trading a little lower and that would drag the index even lower," Mr Morrow said.
At 1205 AEST, the spot price of gold in Sydney was $US933.05 per fine ounce, down $US5.85 on Thursday's close of $US938.90.
The gold miners were weaker. Lihir Gold was down five cents at $2.93, Newcrest Mining fell 55 cents to $30.65 and Newmont dropped 13 cents, or 2.51 per cent, to $5.05.
Major banking stocks all were trading lower at 1207 AEST.
Commonwealth Bank dropped 46 cents to $36.96, National Australia Bank lost 19 cents to $21.66, Westpac fell 33 cents to $19.25 and ANZ declined five cents to $16.08.
Macquarie Group lost 98 cents to $37.02.
Stocks in energy companies were mixed. Woodside Petroleum fell 61 cents to $41.05 and Oil Search was off six cents at $5.39.
Santos, which announced after the market closed on Thursday that it had taken a 19.99 per cent stake in Eastern Star Gas for $176 million, dropped 28 cents to $14.11.
By 1217 AEST, Origin Energy shares had risen 15 cents to $14.06, while Eastern Star Gas jumped 6.5 cents, or by 8.07 per cent, to 87 cents.
In the media sector at 1221 AEST, News Corp was down 52 cents, or almost four per cent, at $12.74 and the company's non-voting scrip was 56 cents lower, or by 4.83 per cent, at $11.04.
Fairfax Media fell 3.5 cents, or 2.99 per cent, to $1.135, but Consolidated Media rose two cents to $2.25.
Retailers were mixed. At 1227 AEST, Woolworths was down 15 cents at $25.84, while rival Wesfarmers rose seven cents to $22.36.
Harvey Norman declined two cents to $3.19, while department store David Jones fell four cents to $4.48.
At 1229 AEST, the top-traded stock by volume was Lakes Oil NL, with about than 205.4 million shares trading hands worth $2.88 million.
Its share price was up 0.2 cent, or by 15.38 per cent, at 1.5 cents.
Overall turnover was 1.12 billion shares worth $1.54 billion, with 224 stocks up, 558 down and 278 unchanged.
