World Stocks Fall as U.S. Confidence Slips

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- World stocks took a tumble Monday as signs from Friday of flagging U.S. consumer confidence turned investors skittish around the globe.

Indeed, while there may be nothing to fear but fear itself, "fear itself" can still be quite palpable -- especially for investors already inclined toward thinking that their market runup had outpaced the world's underlying economic realities.

The slide began in the U.S. Friday, as the Dow Jones industrial average fell 76.79, or 0.8 percent, to 9,321.40 after falling as much as 165 points on the release of Friday's weak U.S. consumer sentiment report. Among the many losers in the financial sector Friday was Citigroup(C Quote), which shed 0.5%, along with JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote) and Goldman Sachs(GS Quote), which each dropped 1.1%. Fears of additional slowdown in the retails sector sent the SPDR S&P Retail(XRT Quote) down 2.5% Friday.

U.S. futures pointed to more losses Monday.

Today, Shanghai's market led sharp declines across Asia, plummeting nearly 6 percent. European benchmarks were about 1 percent lower, while prices for crude and other commodities fell.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average tumbled 328.72 points, or 3.1 percent, to 10,268.61.

Not to be outdone, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dived 3.6 percent to 20,137.65, while Korea's Kospi dropped 2.8 percent to 1,565.49 and India's Sensex shed 3 percent. Markets in Taiwan, Australia and Singapore fell back over 1 percent.