When Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke failed to rebuff a suggestion during his May 22 congressional testimony that the central bank could begin tapering back bond purchases in September, the stock market finally began to stumble.

A rapid rise in U.S. Treasury yields had caused volatility in global markets since the beginning of May, but it wasn't until Bernanke's testimony that equities started to show weakness.

Since then, equity investors around the world have faced increased volatility thanks to concerns that slowing of quantitative easing will happen sooner than expected, removing liquidity from the marketplace.

The chart below, via Deutsche Bank economist David Folkerts-Landau, shows just how hard tapering fears have hit several major markets across the world.

In the equity space, the Brazilian Bovespa has been hit the hardest, followed by the Japanese Nikkei, the Shanghai Composite, and MSCI's broader emerging markets index.



