HONG KONG (AP) — World stock markets tumbled Thursday, with benchmarks in Tokyo and Seoul losing almost 7 percent each, after recession fears sent Wall Street plunging and Japan suffered its biggest drop in exports in seven years.

The slide in Asian and European shares extended a global sell-off that accelerated overnight amid lowered projections for U.S. economic activity next year from the Federal Reserve and worries over the fate of America’s Big Three automakers, which are pleading for emergency loans from Washington.

The uncertainty facing companies around the world was evident after U.S. consumer prices fell 1 percent last month, the largest amount in the past 61 years. While beneficial to consumers, lower prices hurt corporate profits and raise the threat of deflation.

The rout continued as trading opened in Europe, where Britain’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC-40 all fell more than 2 percent early in the session. Oil and other commodities were also down.

“We’ve gone past the poor sentiment stage,” said Miles Remington, head of Asian sales trading at BNP Paribas Securities in Hong Kong.