The US fall also hit Europe's main markets in the first 20 minutes of Wednesday trade, with London's FTSE 100 index down 36.2 to 5, 905 and the Paris Cac 40 index down 55 points to 5, 382.5.
Financials dragged down the index, according to John Roque, a market analyst and managing director at WJB Capital Group.
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Investors have already marked down stock index futures and the dollar index has rebounded by 0.3% to stand at 74.11 after a poor start to the week.
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The raids helped push the Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 150 points before a rally left the index down 24.97 points.
Earlier, the major European markets had also closed down on Monday, with Germany's Dax index down 2.22% and France's Cac down 2.6%.
Most Asian indexes plunged on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei down 3.4% and China's Hang Seng index down 5.4%.
Vale shares are down 13.3 percent year to date, underperforming the MSCI Brazil index (down 3.85 percent) and the MSCI Emerging Markets index (up 11.47 percent).
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The emerging market index is down 13 percent, with the Russell 2000 Index of small capitalization properties off 16 percent.
Britain's FTSE 100 share index was down 110.10 points, or 1.7%, at 6, 522.70 points, France's CAC-40 fell 100.67 points, or 1.7%, to 5, 977.87 points, and Germany's Dax index of 50 leading shares was down 189.78 points, or 2.4%, at 7, 730.05 points on Wednesday afternoon.
"We say as we bring down the consumer price index, inflation is going to come down and so that is going to benefit the retirees, " says Sen.
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Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.5%, while the Shanghai Composite Index was fighting the trend with a 0.1% gain.
The five year annualized returns were mostly negative with the MSCI EAFE index down 4.72%.
This increase in income distribution brought the index down in all forms of calculation.
Looking at the different components, it was food and energy prices that brought the index down.
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But investors are still spooked, pushing the Topix index down 2.04 percent to 821.84 at lunch.
The financial sector's nosedive helped drag the CAC 40 index down 104 points, or 1.8%, to 5645.29.
The ZEW economic-sentiment indicator dropped more than expected in April, helping send Germany's DAX index down 0.4%.
In Hong Kong however, stocks were still recording fresh declines, with the Hang Seng Index down 0.3%.
Banks are once again feeling the brunt of it with the KBW bank index down nearly 5% this morning.
The Dow Jones Pharmaceuticals Index is down 13% for the past 12 months, while the Biotechnology Index is off 20%.
Breaking down the energy index, it was gasoline, which rose 9.1% according to the index, which caused the most damage.
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Worries that the euro-zone crisis was flaring up again pushed the broad MSCI Asia ex-Japan index down 1.3% on Monday.
The MSCI Brazil index is down 8.67 percent this year while the MSCI Emerging Markets index is up 13.6 percent.
The recent daily 4% moves up or down in the index would have been viewed as freakish a few years ago.
And though strong oil prices and disappointing earnings news from technology companies brought the index down on Wednesday, other sectors held firm.
The negative data hurt shares in Japan's construction equipment makers and sent the benchmark Nikkei 225 index down 1.44%, to close at 13, 017.24.
More downbeat economic data out of China and Europe added to the pessimism this morning, with the German DAX 30 index down 4.9%.
The losses leave the 100 index down 13% on the month, with the French and German markets worse hit, losing 18.3% and 24% respectively.
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