Recession fears push shares lower

European stock markets dropped today after Japan’s Nikkei tumbled more than 11% overnight amid mounting anxiety that the world economy is plunging into a deep and protracted recession.

The latest bout of selling in the markets was stoked by a record fall on Wall Street yesterday after weaker-than-expected US retail sales and a pessimistic assessment from the US Federal Reserve indicated that the world’s largest economy is already, or about to fall, into recession.