Bitcoin plunged on the day that central American country El Salvador adopted the cryptocurrency as legal tender. Meanwhile, technology stocks drove the Nasdaq to a new record high. 

El Salvador's sovereign bonds fell as much as 6 percentage points in secondary market trading, to 87.11, as the price of bitcoin dropped sharply. 

Bitcoin prices dropped as much as 18 per cent, to around $US43,119, a low not seen since mid-August, according to financial markets news service Refinitiv Eikon. 

At 1:00pm AEST, Bitcoin had recovered some losses and was up two-thirds of a per cent to $US47,080 according to Refinitiv. 

Market traders have said the sharp sell off was also caused by a Supreme Court ruling allowing El Salvador's President, Naib Bukele, to serve two consecutive terms. 

In June, markets reacted negatively when El Salvador said it would become the first country to accept the cryptocurrency as legal tender.

ASX weighed down by commodities 

The local share market opened lower with most commodity prices falling after a directionless day yesterday on the Australian Securities Exchange. 

Miners, healthcare stocks, consumers and real estate companies weighed on the market. 

By 1:00pm AEST, the market had come off its morning lows. 

The All Ordinaries index fell 0.3 to 7,805 over lunchtime. 

The ASX 200 index also dropped by almost one-third of a percentage point to 7,510 with most sectors in the red. 

Banks held up in today's trade.

The best performers in the ASX 200 were investment bank Macquarie Group (+5.8pc) after it delivered a trading update. Macquarie rose despite predicting a "slightly lower" first-half profit. 

Also going up were investment firm Washington H Soul Pattinson (+5.2pc) and Technology One (+3.2pc).

Leading the falls were gold miner St Barbara (-6.7pc), auto parts firm Eagers Automotive (-5.3pc) and online retailer Redbubble (-5.3pc). 

Oil prices fell again overnight as investors worried about demand for fuel and amid rising COVID-9 infections around the globe.

COVID-19 cases jumped to a one-year high in Singapore, while the Philippines reversed its plans to ease restrictions. 

In the US, the death toll from COVID-19 reached 650,000 people, even though three-quarters of the population has had a first vaccine dose. 

Brent crude lost 0.9 per cent, to $US71.60 a barrel, while spot gold fell 1.6 per cent, to $US1,794 an ounce. 

Both commodities reversed course today. 

The Australian dollar fell below 74 US cents as the greenback rose.

It has come off its overnight lows in today's trade to around 73.92 US cents, up one-tenth of a percentage point. 

Macquarie profit downgrade

In a market update, global investment bank Macquarie Group announced it expected profit for the first half of its current financial year to be "slightly lower" compared with the second half of its 2021 financial year. 

Despite the bad news, Macquarie's shares jumped 4.9 per cent to $179.52.

Colonial First State deceives super customers 13,000 times

A court has found that the Commonwealth Bank-owned investment firm Colonial First State (CFS) misled and deceived superannuation customers to keep them in a higher fee fund.

In a case brought by the corporate regulator, the Federal Court ruled the trustees of CFS's First Choice fund were liable for encouraging members of the fund to stay rather than move to a cheaper MySuper product, a low-fee product required by law. 

The court found that, on at least 12,978 occasions, Colonial First State made misleading representations regarding investment decisions. 

ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said superannuation fund members needed to "receive clear and accurate information to make informed decisions".

"These actions did not put members' interests first," Ms Court said. 

The Court declared that, between March 18, 2014, and July 21, 2016, CFS engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by sending 12,911 letters to members containing misleading representations about investment directions.

It also found that CFS made false or misleading representations and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in 70 calls to members about investment directions and failed to provide a "general advice warning", as required by the Corporations Act in 17 calls to members.

Colonial agreed to the declarations being made and a penalty hearing will be held next month. 

Commonwealth Bank shares nearly 1 per cent to $103.08 a share in afternoon trade. 

Wall Street mixed

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq reached a new record high, driven by IT giant Apple and streaming service Netflix. 

The S&P 500 closed lower as investors balanced worries about the slowing pace of economic recovery with expectations that the Federal Reserve would maintain its accommodative monetary policy.

Apple rose almost 1.6 per cent and Netflix added 2.7 per cent, both hitting record highs.

Globalt Investments senior portfolio manager Tom Martin said investors were gravitating towards Big Tech. 

"As people feel a bit uncertain about how COVID will play out, you don't have your reopening worries with those companies," he said.

The rest of the market was less optimistic. 

Of the sub-indices, eight of the 11 traded lower, with economy-sensitive sectors such as industrials, utilities and real estate indices all dropping.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8 per cent, to end at 35,100 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.3 per cent, to 4,520, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.07 per cent, to 15,374.

The S&P 500 remains up about 20 per cent, year to date, and the Nasdaq is up about 19 per cent. 

Boeing dropped 1.8 per cent after Ireland's Ryanair said it had ended talks with the plane-maker over the purchase of 737 MAX 10 jets worth tens of billions of dollars, due to differences over price.

Boris tax hit weighs on FTSE

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced higher taxes while Bank of England policy maker Michael Saunders said interest rates rises are expected to be limited. 

The tax increase is to help rescue Britain's health system, the National Health Service, from huge backlogs caused by the COVID-19 crisis. 

National insurance, a payroll tax, will rise by 1.25 per cent from next year with the increases expected to raise 36 billion pounds ($67 billion) over the next three years. 

The FTSE 100 fell 0.6 per cent, to 7,149. 

ABC/Reuters/Bloomberg