European stocks are getting pounded

European stocks took an absolute hammering on Friday as investors flooded into safer, less risky bonds amid worries about the global economy.

At the close, all of continental Europe’s major indexes were down in excess of 2%, with several seeing losses of more than 3% on a day that was a rare exception to the holding pattern stocks have been in for the past few weeks.

The biggest loser on the day was Italy’s FTSE MIB, down 3.64% to 17,177, pushed lower by weak banking stocks. Investors continue to worry about the impact of negative interest rates in the eurozone and their impact on bank profitability, as well as the ongoing woes surrounding the stability of Italy’s financial sector.

Several banks were down more than 6% on the week’s final day of trading. Here’s how the MIB looked on the day:

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In Britain, the FTSE 100 saw big losses, down 1.86% to 6,116 points, with a combination of commodity, airline, and financial stocks pulling down the index with losses of more than 3%. Only a handful of stocks, including security group G4S and oil giant Shell, were in the green. Despite losing nearly 2%, the FTSE came off relatively unscathed, and was the only major European bourse to drop less than 2%. Here’s the FTSE:

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Here’s the scoreboard for the rest of the biggest indexes on the continent:

• German DAX: down 2.51% to 9,836
• French CAC 40: down 2.19% to 4,309
• Spanish IBEX 35: down 3.09% to 8,498
• Eurostoxx 50: down 2.55% to 2,913

Earlier in the day, Mike van Dulken from Accendo Markets noted that investors were reacting to a weak Friday in Asia, were worried about negative bond yields, and about what the Fed’s June meeting and Britain’s EU referendum could mean for the global economy.

Here’s what he said in his daily email round-up (emphasis ours):

Equity indices have gone for a dress-down and risk-off Friday,with major support levels breached or seeing meaningful tests. This is derived from Asian bourses following their stateside peers south as negative bond yields become more prevalent, calling into question global monetary stimulus efforts while growth and inflation struggle to recover post-crisis. And with event-risk related to next week’s Fed policy update and a too-close-to-call UK referendum on EU membership the week after, investors are continuing to temper their appetite for risk assets into the week-end. Apprehension likely stems from what bearing China data (Industrial Production, Retail Sales, Investment) will have on sentiment come Monday morning as well as a US dollar bounce hurting the commodity space, taking oil from its 2016 recovery highs.

As equities tumbled, bond yields continued to dive to record lows as investors flood the market for the safer assets.