BREAKING OVERNIGHT... WORLD RECKONS WITH WEAK US ECONOMY, SPREAD OF WAR... INTERNATIONAL MARKETS BEGIN TO DIVE... NYT: Markets Around the World Are Jolted by Fears of Slowing U.S. Growth The Nikkei 225 index dropped 12.4 percent, as economic fears added to concerns about a strengthening yen’s effects on corporate profits. It was the benchmark index’s biggest one-day point decline, larger than the plunge during the Black Monday crash in October 1987. The unease then spread to Europe, where the Pan-European Stoxx index fell about 3 percent, with every major market on the continent recording declines.