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For global stock markets, it was the worst opening in two decades. The S&P 500, which declined almost six per cent this week, has seen only one worse start to the year since 1929. In Canada, the S&P/TSX Composite Index plunged into a bear market, defined as a 20 per cent or more slide from its previous high. If you haven’t thrown in the towel yet, there’s a good chance you’ve at least given it serious thought.

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The trigger for all of this has been China, where flash market crashes seem to have lately become the norm. It has also led to fears that the world’s second-largest economy could be the trigger for another worldwide recession.

“The fact that market reactions were as tumultuous as they were suggests that China’s economic situation has become inherently unstable,” said Christian Keller, head of economics research at Barclays Capital.

All of that is unsettling for stock investors who have enjoyed a bull market for almost seven years now. The instability in China comes in a year in which many of the drivers of the current bull market are set to end. The U.S. Federal Reserve is in the process of normalizing rates, tightening the liquidity that has fuelled so much risk-taking in markets since 2009.