Investors were seeing red in Tokyo, where the Nikkei has entered bear market territory. There was more red in Europe, where commodity shares are suffering. U.S. stock futures are also sharply lower.
Here are 4 tips for today's trading. This will help you decide where you should invest and what to look for:
1. International markets overview
European markets are sharply lower, with main indexes down around 3% lower at the open. Asian markets ended firmly in negative territory. The Nikkei closed down 3.7%, and entered a bear market. The Hang Seng ended down 3.8% and shares in Shanghai shed 1%.
2. Oil
The crash in crude oil prices keeps getting worse, heightening concerns about the health of the world economy. Oil in the U.S. has fallen below $28 a barrel for the first time since September 2003.
3. Stock market movers
Shell (RDSA) shares are down more than 3% after the oil major gave a downbeat market update ahead of a shareholder's vote on its proposed merger with BG (BRGYY).
Netflix (NFLX, Tech30) shares surged more than 6% during extended trading after the company revealed it reached 75 million subscribers last quarter.
IBM's (IBM, Tech30) shares were down 5% premarket after the company issued a disappointing earnings report.
4. Tuesday market recap
The Dow Jones industrial average advanced by 0.2%, while the S&P 500 inched up 0.1% and the Nasdaq dipped 0.3%.