London — World stock markets nosedived for a fourth consecutive trading day on Tuesday, having seen $4-trillion wiped off from what just eight days ago had been record high values. Europe’s main bourses started down as much as 3%, leaving investors with little option but to seek the traditional refuges of gold, the Japanese yen and one of the initial triggers for the sell-off — benchmark government bonds. Wall Street futures offer a chink of light as they turned higher, but commodities suffered too, with oil and metals all tumbling backwards as what had been one of their best starts to a year also soured rapidly. "Playtime is officially over, kids," analysts at Rabobank said. "Rising volatility painfully reminds some investors that one-way bets don’t exist." The stock sell-off had been viewed by some as a healthy correction following their rapid rise over the past year but, as it snowballed through Asia and then Europe, nerves were starting to fray. Wall Street’s Dow Jones and S&P 5...
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