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A plethora of worries is getting on the nerves of investors: the war in Ukraine is driving up commodity prices, which means there is a risk of inflation surging while the economy cools down at the same time.
Added to this are disappointing company balance sheets.
Dax and EuroStoxx50 each lost almost four percent on Tuesday to 13,904.85 and 3777.21 points respectively.
That was the lowest closing price for both indices in about a year.
The US standard value index Dow Jones lost 1.7 percent.
"Assuming that there is no quick solution to the conflict, global economic growth could be half a percentage point to a percentage point lower," predicted Paul Jackson, senior analyst at wealth manager Invesco.
Parts of Europe could even slip into recession.
In addition, it must be expected that inflation will remain high in the long term.
After a slight decline at the beginning of the year, inflation in Germany rose again in February to 5.1 percent.
According to Michael Stappel, Head of Macroeconomics at DZ BANK, inflation was “here to stay”.
The Ukraine crisis also fueled the price increase.
"An initial further increase in the inflation rate in Germany is to be expected."
The Russian currency was again under pressure on the foreign exchange market.
The dollar, on the other hand, rose 7 percent to 101.23 rubles, a new record high.
The fact that not even the Russian central bank's sharp hike in interest rates was able to stabilize the ruble is a clear sign that it is impossible for foreign investors to invest in Russia, said analyst Piotr Matys of investment adviser In Touch.
The Moscow Stock Exchange remained closed for the second day in a row on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Börse announced that no bonds, shares or derivatives from Russia can be traded there after the end of the trading day.
In the "public interest", the purchase and sale of these papers will be stopped until further notice after the end of trading on Tuesday, the Frankfurt stock exchange operator announced.
Investors flee to “safe havens”
Out of uncertainty, other investors set course for »safe havens«.
The price of gold rose by a good one percent to $1,929 per troy ounce.
Bunds were also in high demand, causing yields on ten-year bonds to fall below zero percent again.
Cryptocurrencies also made strong gains.
Bitcoin’s price rose 4.5 percent to $43,473.
The Swiss franc was also in demand, climbing to its highest level since abandoning the peg to the euro in January 2015.
One euro costs 1.0229 francs.
Experts point to the war in Ukraine.
If the conflict worsens further, the franc could reach parity with the euro, it said.
A record level of CHF 0.85 per euro was reached a good seven years ago.
Since then, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has been using negative interest rates and foreign exchange market interventions to resist an economically damaging appreciation of the national currency.
mic/Reuters/dpa-AFX