NEW YORK, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- European stocks plunged Tuesday ahead of Wall Street's opening bell in a rampant global selloff on Europe's debt crisis and the U.S. credit downgrade.
Asian markets closed mostly lower.
British, German and French stock indexes fell more than 2 percent in early-morning trading following daylong gyrations in Asian markets.
Futures on the U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 index were about 2 percent lower early Tuesday.
In Asia, some of the exchanges partially recouped their day's losses in the aftermath of Monday's carnage on the New York Stock Exchange.
Fears of a double-dip recession in the United States and the debt crisis in Europe gripped Asian investors in the wake of Standard & Poor's downgrading of U.S. debt rating to AA+ from AAA.
Monday's losses on the New York markets amounted to about $1 trillion for investors, CNN reported.
Also on Monday, S&P downgraded mortgage giants Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and several U.S. cities.
China, the largest creditor nation to the United States, weighed in with its own bad news Tuesday, saying its July inflation had hit a 37-month high of 6.5 percent, with the state media saying it had put the government in a tough position as it faces the daunting task of taming prices and ensuring growth amid a faltering global economy.
Tokyo's Nikkei-225 index fell nearly 5 percent after opening, but managed to end the day with a loss of 153 points, or 1.7 percent, to 8,944 points, the first such close below the 9,000-level since March. The index has lost more than 9 percent in recent sessions.
The U.S. dollar traded below the 77 yen level despite Japan's market intervention last week to stem its currency's appreciation.
Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng index plunged 1,160 points, or 5.66 percent, to close at 19,331 points after recovering from the day's low of 18, 868 points.
The Shanghai composite index managed to shake off China's inflation news to close barely unchanged from the previous day.
South Korea's Kospi fell sharply after opening but recovered somewhat to close down 3.64 percent.
Australia's All Ordinaries index ended slightly higher after being down sharply during the day. Singapore and Taiwan also closed virtually unchanged. Indonesian markets ended down 2.99 percent.
Both the Sensex and Nifty indexes closed lower in India, after big losses initially.
"You have the onset of fear in the market. There are a lot of things that don't make sense," one analyst told the BBC.
Internal Notes.
The U.S. dollar also fell against the euro.
The price of gold -- considered a safe haven at times of uncertainty -- topped $1,750 a troy ounce.
Oil dropped about $3 to about $78 a barrel.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 634 points, or 5.6 percent, Monday and the S&P 500-stock index dropped 6.7 percent, the biggest retreats since December 2008 in the midst of the financial crisis.
About $7.8 trillion has been wiped away in global stock markets in the past 10 trading days.
