Global markets

Japan's Nikkei 225 index ended the morning session down 5.3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 4.7%.

It comes after the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its worst drop in more than six years on Monday.

A strengthening global economy and healthy corporate earnings had spurred world markets to record highs.

But the sell-off began last week after a solid US jobs report fuelled expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates faster than expected.

The yuan's exchange rate against the dollar "tends to be stable," Zhou Xiaochuan said at a meeting of finance officials of the Group of 20 major economies in Turkey on Friday, according to a central bank statement.

Beijing said the Aug. 11 devaluation was part of efforts aimed at making the yuan's state-set exchange rate more market-oriented. But coming without warning amid a collapse in Chinese share prices, it caused anxiety in financial markets.

KEEPING SCORE: In Europe, Germany's DAX fell 1.3 percent to 10,547, while Britain's FTSE slipped 0.6 percent to 6,363. The CAC40 in France was 1.3 percent lower at 4,821. Wall Street looked set for losses at the open too with Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures down 0.7 percent.

CHINA CONCERS: Worries over China, the world's number 2 economy, were once again the catalyst for Thursday's declines. 

KEEPING SCORE: Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index futures were down 0.3 percent as of 8:50 a.m. Eastern time. In Europe, Germany's DAX shed 0.3 percent and France's CAC-40 lost 0.3 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was flat.