Following a wild sell-off at the close of last week, Asian markets ended Monday morning with significant losses, entering bear market territory with a decline of nearly 20% from their 52-week highs.

Europe also faced turmoil, with the Euro Stoxx 600 opening 2.28% lower. All sectors and major European stock exchanges were in negative territory, led by technology stocks, which dropped 5%, and banks, which fell up to 4.67%.

European stocks hit a nearly six-month low at the start of the week, as investors brace for a potential US recession.

The European markets opened at low levels, with the UK's FTSE 100 down 2%, Frankfurt's DAX falling 2.33%, and Paris' CAC 40 losing 2.15%. Madrid saw a 2.8% decline, while Milan fell 1.7%.

The cryptocurrency industry has not been spared from the panic in international markets, with Bitcoin falling up to 11% and Ether losing 16.9% of its value in just one day.

Concerns about an impending US recession have affected markets worldwide.

The Nikkei dropped 12.4%, finishing at 31,458 points, marking its worst daily performance since the stock market crash of October 1987. The Topix fell 12.23% to 2,227.15 points. Major corporate giants like Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Marubeni each lost around 10%.

It is noted that both the Nikkei and Topix have lost about 20% from the record highs reached on July 11. Last Friday, the Nikkei experienced its worst day since March 2020.

Yields on US bonds continued to decline as recession fears grew following the release of several key economic indicators last week.

The 10-year government bond yield fell more than eight basis points to 3.7099% on Monday morning. The 2-year government bond yield was last at 3.7315% after a drop of about 14 basis points.

The sell-off in Asia and Europe predicts a difficult day for Wall Street, which opens in the afternoon. Nasdaq futures are already down 5%, followed by the S&P with a 2.5% loss.