On the worst day for American shares since March 2003, sell orders were so heavy that at one point the New York Stock Exchange could not process them all.

There are already signs that the German economy may be coming off the boil. Manufacturing orders fell in March.

In the UK, Nationwide building society said that house prices increased by 0.9% in March, slowing the annual rate of decline to 15.7%, while in the US there was a surprise increase in factory orders.