World stock markets around the world plummeted on growth fears, recording their worst week of the year.

“We are in the midst of a full-blown growth scare…” Now, the question is whether the world can stay on the recovery path without the Fed’s largess.

“Investors should brace for further volatility“, they wrote in a research note. That puts it within shooting range of what traders call a “correction“, or a fall from a high of more 10 percent. At the end of trading Friday, the index was down 530.94 points, to 16,459.75, a loss of 3.1 percent on the day.

In Singapore, the Straits Times Index sank 4.6 per cent for the week to 2,971.01, below the key psychological 3,000 level. That would still represent the biggest single-day point decline in history.

Deere fell 8.1 percent to US$83.31 after the tractor maker’s quarterly profit slumped 40 percent. The index has shed over $1 trillion in market value in August so far. U.S. crude fell 87 cents to close at $40.45 in New York.

Apple shares slid 5.8 percent to $99.61 in premarket trading and were set to open at their lowest this year.

The fall in oil prices is hurting U.S. energy stocks too.

Natural gas and gold are also down.

Top euro zone shares on the Euro STOXX 50 fell 2 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC fell 2.2 per cent, with Spain’s IBEX and Italy’s FTSE MIB down 2 per cent.

Earlier this week, the central bank released the minutes from its July meeting, which showed some members are ready to go forward with a rate hike while others are concerned about the global economy and non-existent inflation in the U.S.

“Investors are taking a safety first approach to the stock market given the potential for instability related to capital flight from emerging economies”, Ric Spooner, a market strategist for CMC Markets, said in a commentary.

Throw in uncertainty about when the Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates for the first time in more than a decade, and investors are losing their confidence in holding onto stocks. The dollar index fell 1.1 per cent to $93.92 as the probability of a September rate hike receded. As a result, the Fed may decide to wait until later in the year, or longer. One concern is that after a period of extraordinary monetary expansion, central banks do not have many bullets left to fire to try to push economies forward.

“For much of this year, the glass was considered half full, and now people the last 48 hours are thinking it’s looking more empty”, George Hashbarger, who oversees $224 million as chief executive officer and portfolio manager at Knoxville, Tenn.-based Quintium Advisors LLC, said by phone. But the Dow’s losses were even more prominent.

The reading was the worst since March 2009, the depths of the global financial crisis, and the sixth straight one below the 50-point level, which separates growth in activity from contraction on a monthly basis.

China is the third largest market for WPP, which is tipped to say that its pre-tax profits have risen 13 per cent to £600.7million due to strong performances from its advertising and media planning businesses, as well as its digital and healthcare communications divisions.