As economic recovery wavers in the United States, evidence is mounting that growth abroad is also slowing and may be unable to sustain the fragile rebound here.

Concerns about flagging global growth weighed heavily on Asian stocks Thursday, while European markets opened flat. Japan’s Nikkei index dropped more than 2 percent Thursday before recovering some of those losses, which came after steep declines Wednesday in American and European equities.

Those market drops followed a spate of developments signaling a slowing economy both in the United States and abroad. On Tuesday, Federal Reserve officials warned that the pace of recovery in the United States had slowed. Then on Wednesday came news from China suggesting its fast-growing economy was cooling. And later that day, the Bank of England reduced its already diminished forecast for the British economy.

Finally, new trade figures from Washington showed that American exports were faltering, a sign that hard-pressed domestic manufacturers could not rely on overseas markets to ease their pain at home.