Investors’ fears of a U.S. recession is causing stock markets to plunge around the world, according to the International Herald Tribune:

Global stock markets plunged Monday as fears spread that the contagion in U.S. mortgage markets was spreading. Indexes in Europe fell as much as 7 percent after a massive sell-off in Asia.”There’s something approaching panic in the market,” Holger Schmieding, the chief European economist at Bank of America in London, said by telephone. “There’s been a reassessment in the market of the U.S. economic outlook, with most people now thinking that there will be a recession,” and investors are starting to reconsider the idea that the rest of the world “will remain aloof from U.S. problems.” …Investors in Asia have been in a state of denial about the possibility of a U.S. recession, said Adrian Mowat, chief strategist for JP Morgan in Asia. But now, he said, “there’s no debate about it.” Instead, he said, investors were asking “how long and how deep” the recession might be.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 index fell 3.9 percent, the mainland Chinese index more than 5 percent. In Europe, the Dow Jones Eurostoxx 50 was down 5.1 percent and in the UK the ftse 100 was down 3.4 percent. With American stock markets closed due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, they are yet to react to this global crash.

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