Investors are dumping bank stocks amid worries that a protracted period of slowing global growth, plunging oil prices and rock-bottom interest rates will combine to inflict pain on the world’s largest financial institutions.

Global markets' anxiety spilled over into Asia early February 9, sending investors scurrying for havens like Japanese government bonds, where 10-year yields turned negative for the first time. At the midday break, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average was down about 5%.