Ryan Detrick, of LPL Financial, said: “The bond market has definitely got the stock market’s attention.

“Is the bond market telling us something we don’t know? Is there more inflation down the road than we’re expecting?”

The Dow plunged more than 1,100 points on Monday, in its biggest daily point decline ever, as a stronger-than-expected US jobs report stoked fears that interest rates would be hiked quicker than previously anticipated.

This caused a global sell-off at the start of the week, with losses recorded across European and Asian markets, though stocks largely appeared to have staged a recovery since.

However, over in the US, gains were entirely wiped out on Thursday, with the Dow shedding 4.2pc, the S&P 500 3.8pc and Nasdaq 4pc lower after a volatile late trading session.

The rout continued in Asia. The Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 6.0 percent to its lowest since May 2017, and the blue chip CSI300 index dived as 6.1 percent. Both indexes were on track for their largest single-day losses since February 2016.

Japan's Nikkei shed 2.9 percent, en route for a weekly loss of 8.6 percent - its biggest since February 2016.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 2.2 percent to a two-month low.

Spreadbetters expected Europe markets to start lower, forecasting an 0.8 percent drop for FTSE, and declines of 0.2 percent for Germany's DAX and France's CAC.