World Stocks Slide As Economic Recovery Hopes Wane

Monday's drop in commodity prices hurt mining and energy stocks most, including Anglo American PLC, Rio Tinto PLC, BP PLC Total SA and ENI Spa. On Wall Street, every one of the 30 companies on the Dow were lower with aluminum company Alcoa Inc. the worst performer, down by over 7 percent.

In Germany, bank shares slipped — with Commerzbank AG and Deutsche Bank AG among the worst hit — after the European Central Bank warned that banks in the 16-country single currency zone face potential bad loan losses of $283 billion by the end of 2010.

The state of Europe's banks has come to the forefront of investors' attention in recent weeks, with the International Monetary Fund notably warning that more needs to be done to get them back into financial health.

As well as worrying about Europe's banks, investors have also grown concerned that the rise in interest rates on U.S. government bonds and in oil prices could combine to choke off any global economic recovery at birth, despite the improvement in recent economic indicators

"Right now investors seem happy taking any quick wins while they can, waiting to see where the next major movements will come from — if this is to be the week to change the (investment) mix then we will need to see more positive news from the wider economy before investors finally manage to get off the fence," said Philip Gillet, a sales trader at IG Index.