At 11am AEST on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 214 points, or 2.69 per cent, to 7,729.2, while the broader All Ordinaries had dropped 223.5 points, or 2.8 per cent, to 7,946.9.
It followed the ASX finishing 2.11 per cent lower on Friday, meaning a 4.8 per cent dip for the bourse over the past two days of trading.
"I think we're in a fairly messy position here," AMP chief economist Shane Oliver told Sky News.
"It looks to me like the inflation scare we saw earlier in this year in the US and more recently in Australia, has unnecessarily delayed monetary easing.Â
"And now, of course, the financial markets are starting to worry about that higher risk of recession."
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by more than 1.5 per cent on Friday, while the S&P500 slipped 1.84 per cent, after US unemployment jumped to a near three-year high of 4.3 per cent.
Every ASX sector was in the red in early trading, with IT stocks leading the way down at 4.5 per lower.
BHP was down 2.2 per cent, while the Big Four banks were between 3.4 and 3.9 per cent lower.
Monday's hiccup amounted to the biggest two-day fall since the ASX plunged 4.28 per cent over June 14-15, 2022, amid anticipation of super-sized US central bank rate hikes.
24°C