World stocks sank again today, as car and bank stocks took a battering on reports of a nuclear power plant on fire amid fierce fighting between Ukraine and Russian troops.
Stocks in Europe are on course for their third consecutive week of declines.
European markets have been at the centre of a market selloff fuelled by concerns about the region's geographical proximity to Russia and its heavy reliance on Russian gas supplies.
London's FTSE index had dropped 2.5% this afternoon, while both the Paris CAC and the Frankfurt DAX slumped about 3.5%.
Dublin's ISEQ index was also seeing big losses this morning, tumbling by 5% in afternoon trade. Companies including Cairn Homes, CRH, ICG, Smurfit Kappa and Ryanair were all lower.
Asian markets also tumbled in earlier trade with Tokyo's Nikkei index closing 2.2% lower while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong slumped 2.5%.
Wall Street's main indexes lost more than 1% as concerns over the intensifying war in Ukraine overshadowed data that showed an acceleration in jobs growth last month.
Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors declined in early trading, with financials falling the most.
Bank of America dropped 3% and the broader banks index wasdown 2.9%, tracking a fall in Treasury yields.
Equities globally were weaker and safe-havens in demand as Russian invasion forces seized Europe's biggest nuclear power plant in what Washington called a reckless assault that risked catastrophe.
The crisis, however, boosted energy stocks as crude prices rallied on the back of Western sanctions against Russia, a major oil producer.
The S&P 500 energy sector gained 1.2% and looked set to end the week with gains of over 7%.
The commodity price surge spurred by the sanctions has raised fears of even higher inflation, which could prompt the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates aggressively.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said this week he would support a 25-basis-point interest rate increase at the central bank's March 15-16th policy meeting and would be "prepared to move more aggressively" later if inflation does not abate as fast as expected.
