(Reuters) – European stocks slumped Thursday following a sharp selloff overnight on Wall Street. The dismal results of retailers underscored the impact of surging inflation in the largest economy on the planet.

The U.S. counterparts fell 2.2%, and regional retailers were the worst drags in the pan European index, which sank 1.2% by 0713 GMT. This extends losses that had fallen 1% Wednesday.

The losses were widespread, and all sub-sectors of the major industries saw their shares fall.

The main U.S. Indexes fell between 3.6% – 4.7% Wednesday after Target Corp (NYSE: ) saw its quarterly profits drop by half and warned that rising freight and fuel costs would have a greater impact on their margins. [.N]

Walmart (NYSE 🙂 cut its profit perspective, while consumers stayed focused on the necessities with inflation eating into spending.

In addition to ongoing central bank stimulus reductions and fears about the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, investors fled to bonds for the security they could get from them. [MKTS/GLOB][US/] [GVD/EUR]