Uh Oh

I'm not a religious follower of the stock market, but this just can't be good.

A world-wide stock selloff suggested that recession fears are spreading beyond the U.S., and that the downturn in U.S. markets is dragging down share prices abroad.

While U.S. markets were closed yesterday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, major indexes fell 7.2% in Germany, 7.4% in India and 5.5% in Britain.

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Stock indexes in Britain, Germany and France suffered their heaviest percentage declines since Sept. 11, 2001, and in Hong Kong, the largest since Sept. 12, 2001. Indexes yesterday fell 3.9% in Japan, 5.1% in China and 6.6% in Brazil. Hong Kong-listed shares in Chinese companies fell more than 7%.

If that's not enough, Asian markets have already opened and closed for Tuesday, and it didn't look good. The Nikkei Stock Index in Tokyo dropped more than 5 percent today. When added to Monday's loss, the Nikkei is down 9.3 percent for just this week alone, the largest two-day drop in 17 years.

When the Dow Jones opens again on Tuesday, will it follow, adding to the losses of last week, or will it find some stability? Keep an eye out here.