Wall Street's Monday crash has spread to Europe, with major indexes losing more than 3% at the open.
Germany's DAX, France's CAC 40 and the broad Euro Stoxx 50 index all lost more than 3% of their value before paring their losses to around 2% by mid-morning.
Concerns about inflation rising more sharply than previously expected are fuelling fears that the Federal Reserve may be forced to tighten monetary policy faster than had been forecast.
The global rout in equity prices hit Europe on Tuesday, with major indices across the continent taking big losses in early trading. It was estimated that the rout has now wiped as much as $4 trillion from the market's value.
Germany's DAX, France's CAC 40 and the broad Euro Stoxx 50 index all fell by more than 3% at the open at 8.00 a.m. Britain's FTSE 100 was down by around 2.8%.
US stocks were pummelled on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling almost 1,200 points, the biggest single day fall in points terms in its history. The USA's two other major indexes, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq, were down 4.1% and 3.8% respectively.
Those losses then spread to Asia, and have now moved to Europe, where concerns about inflation rising more sharply than previously expected are fueling fears that the Federal Reserve may be forced to tighten monetary policy faster than had been forecast.
