Important Takeaways:

• Fears of a U.S. recession tanked global markets Monday, with Japanese stocks suffering their biggest single-day rout since 1987’s Black Monday.
• U.S. stock futures tumbled Monday, with NASDAQ’s futures falling as much as 4% pre-open.
• In Japan, the Nikkei average shed a staggering 12.4% — the index’s worst showing in percentage terms since the October 1987 crash, Reuters reports.
• The Nikkei’s 4,451-point loss was the biggest ever — eclipsing the 3,836 points it lost on Oct. 20, 1987, when the Black Monday crash hit Japan.
• Between the lines: The recent batch of economic data indicates that the Federal Reserve waited too long to cut interest rates. Given the delays with which Fed policy affects the economy, the new numbers suggest the Fed should have started adjusting policy several months earlier.
• What we’re watching: The big question now is whether this is the beginning of a global, risk-off movement that will spread deeper across markets.

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