FRANKFURT/NEW YORK/TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Investors' nerves are on edge at the start of the week on stock markets around the world. Friday's price slide continued seamlessly on Monday. An unexpectedly weak US labor market report before the weekend had fueled fears of a recession in the USA and, as a result, a more significant cooling of the global economy, sending stock markets on a downward spiral.

Market participants believe it is possible that the US Federal Reserve missed the opportunity to cut interest rates at the right time and cut them too late. Bad economic news - which was seen as positive some time ago because it raised hopes of interest rate cuts - is now also perceived as bad news because it fuels fears of recession. Geopolitically, the situation remains very tense with a possible attack by Iran on Israel.

The weak data from the US jobs market was recently compounded by largely disappointing quarterly figures from the hot US technology sector. The hype surrounding the trending topic of artificial intelligence (AI) may have gone too far, according to traders. On the Asian stock markets, technology stocks suffered on Monday due to a report that chip manufacturer Nvidia is postponing the launch of new AI chips due to so-called design flaws. As a major beneficiary of the artificial intelligence boom, Nvidia has recently been the driving force behind the general stock market rally.

"Investors are currently being confronted with two unpleasant facts," wrote analyst Jochen Stanzl from trading firm CMC Markets. "On the one hand, growth in the field of artificial intelligence comes with enormous costs, which reduces margins and makes high share valuations suddenly appear exaggerated. And secondly, the restrictive monetary policy of the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve is now having an effect."

In Europe, share prices took a dive on Monday morning. Germany's leading index, the Dax, lost around three percent at one point and trended towards the 17,000-point mark. The EuroStoxx 50, the leading index in the eurozone, suffered similar losses. In the USA, futures on the Nasdaq 100 technology index again indicated high losses of around four percent on Monday. The extent to which uncertainty is spreading in New York can be seen from the VIX fear barometer. This measures the intensity of fluctuations on the stock markets and reached a high on Monday since mid-2020.

The price losses in Europe were almost mild compared to the Japanese Nikkei 225, which suffered a price slump of more than 12% on Monday. Because the Tokyo benchmark index has now lost more than 20 percent from the record high reached in July, Borsians are talking about a so-called bear market. This means that pessimism prevails on the stock market, which is characterized by falling prices. The recent sharp rise in the national currency, the yen, is weighing heavily on the share prices of export-dependent Japanese companies. Unlike in Europe and the USA, interest rate cuts are not an issue in Japan. Rather, the Japanese central bank could raise interest rates.

Market expert Daniel Saurenz from the investment portal Feingold Research explained the sell-off as follows: "The international stock markets now have to price in the risk of a recession. "The Dax, Nasdaq and Nikkei were still trading at record levels a few weeks ago and the Japanese are showing how quickly a party can end." It was a black Monday in Tokyo today, while the stock market in Frankfurt was still wearing shades of gray, said Saurenz, referring to the varying degrees of price losses.

The fact that investors on both sides of the Atlantic are avoiding risky investments at the start of the week is also evident when looking at cryptocurrencies, which are considered highly speculative. Bitcoin continued to lose considerable ground. The price of the oldest and best-known cryptocurrency plummeted to below USD 50,000 on the Bitstamp trading platform, reaching its lowest level since February. In addition to Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies also came under heavy selling pressure.

Meanwhile, currencies regarded as safe havens, such as the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc, benefited from the great uncertainty on the financial markets. The dollar fell to 0.8448 Swiss francs. This is the lowest level since January. Government bonds, such as those from Germany, which are considered safe, also remained in demand. Futures for 10-year German and US bonds rose and yields fell.

The crisis currency gold remained at around USD 2,422 per troy ounce (around 31.1 grams) on Monday. In mid-July, the price of gold had reached a record high of 2,483 dollars./ajx/la/bek/men

--- By Achim Jüngling and Lutz Alexander, dpa-AFX ---