Overnight markets in Asia continued to weaken with Tokyo down another 2.5% and Hong Kong more than 4% lower.

There was some respite in Europe yesterday, with most markets including Dublin closing about 3% higher.

The beleaguered Deutche Bank stock regained about 10% of its value following reports in The Financial Times yesterday, which said that it is prepared to buy back its own bonds to strengthen its balance sheet and support its share price.

The various markets in New York closed largely flat though they did weaken slightly in late trading, following a very closely watched testimony by US Federal Reserve Chairwoman, Janet Yellen to the US Congress.

In a cautious statement, she pointed to the strong features of the US economy including very strong employment figures and she didn’t give any formal indication that US interest rates won’t continue to rise after the first 0.25% upward tick in nine years in December

But she referenced a whole range of challenging issues from China’s economy to falling stock markets and emerging market debt worries, which “if they proved persistent” could weigh on economic activity and employment- most analysts now expect a much slower pace of interest rate increases in the US.

In early trading, the ISQE is down 2.58% while the FTSE has taken a 2.5% hit.