Stocks in Europe and Asia fell on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve signaled it would begin ending its $120 billion monthly asset purchase program in 2021.
The STOXX Europe 600, which comprises approximately 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, fell 7 points, or 1.51%, to 467.24.
London's FTSE 100 fell 110, or 1.54%, to 7,058, and the German DAX 30 fell 200 points, or 1.25%, to 15,765.
The French CAC 40 was the index with the biggest loss among the European indices, falling 2.43% to 6,605.
Italy's FTSE MIB fell 428 points, or 1.63%, to 25,928, while Spain's IBEX 35 fell 68 points, or 0.76%, to 8,902.
Asian stocks also suffered heavy losses.
Asia Dow, which includes top-tier companies in the region, closed at around 3,777 points, down 70 points, or 1.84%.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock fell 304 points, or 1.1%, to 27,281.
China's Shanghai stock market fell 19 points, or 0.57%, to 3,465 points. India's Sensex benchmark index fell 162, or 0.29%, to 55,629.
Hang Seng, the indicator for blue-chip stocks traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange, recorded the sharpest decline among Asian indices, reaching 25,316 points with 550 points, or 2.13%.
The Singapore index fell 44, or 1.42%, to 3,086 points.
Despite a weak open for the fourth day in a row, major US stock markets were struggling to enter positive territory.
The Dow Jones fell 131 points, or 0.38%, to 34,827 at 2.26 EDT, while the S&P 500 fell 2 points, or 0.05%, to 4.4397.
The Nasdaq rose 4 percent, or 0.03 percent, to 14,530.
The VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, rose for the fourth consecutive day and rose 3.2% to 22.26. The dollar index rose 0.46% to 93.56.
The yield on 10-year US Treasury bills decreased by 2.7% to 1.238%.
Gold fell 0.55% to $1,778 an ounce and silver fell 1.5% to $23.16, while precious metals were in negative territory.
Oil fell more than 2.6% as Brent crude fell to $66.44 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate to $63.51.
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