The global sell-off continued today, as investors around the world lost confidence in government attempts to turn the economy around. While a few company earnings reports today could show some resilience in recession, investors fear a barrage of recession data, and a gloomy report from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, will pressure stocks lower.

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Markets tumbled in Asia and Europe. The U.S. is set to open slightly higher, as the price of stock index futures on all the major indexes increased modestly today.

But analysts fear that stocks will plunge again today; on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 251 points to 7,115, a level last seen in 1997 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 27 points to 743, below the recession low it hit on Nov. 20.