UK shares are tipped to open higher after a big-sell off yesterday and after shares in Japan plummeted overnight to levels not seen in a year.
The Nikkei 225 finished down 4.84% , or 760 points at 14,953 but had been 5.4% down at one point, as investors fret over the state of the global economy and Janet Yellen's take on the outlook for the US.
On Wall Street, the Dow crashed out 255 lower, at 15,660, while the Nasdaq finished 17 down as gloom enveloped US traders once more again.
Yellen's testimony before Congress had been taken positively initially, but seems to have now gone in the opposite direction as the spectre of slower interest rate rises fuels fears over stagnant growth.
In London, FTSE 100 finished down 2.39% at 5,537 as banks and financial stocks took a big hit.
But today, spreadbetters at IG are expecting fortunes to turn a tad and for the benchmark to open around 32 points higher.
Oil staged a recovery overnight to a certain extent with US crude adding 4.5% to US$27.40 a barrel.
In London, the big corporate story will come from engineer Rolls Royce (LON:RR.) and traders will be hoping for an uplift in its fortunes, although analysts say it may cut its dividend.
Rolls has flown into turbulence in the last year or so as lucrative aerospace after-sales repair and maintenance business has dropped off and marine power markets have declined.
The problems sparked several profit warnings and the departure of John Rishton as chief executive in April last year.