The decision by the Eurozone to force bank depositors in Cyprus to contribute towards a bailout, a first in the Eurozone debt crisis, could hurt other peripheral nations, the Euro and the global stock market rally, analysts warned.

European finance chiefs ordered an unprecedented raid on personal bank accounts. Up to 60,000 British savers are to lose thousands of pounds each as expats in Cyprus have their savings decimated in part of a painful bid to bail out the bankrupt island.

Fear returned to Wall Street on Wednesday August 10, 2011 — sending the S&P 500 to another 4 percent decline, triggered by worries that Europe’s debt crisis could engulf French banks and spill onto the U.S. financial sector.

Stock prices hurtled lower Monday August 8, 2011 as anxiety overtook investors on the first trading day since Standard & Poor’s downgraded American debt. The Dow Jones Industrials were briefly down more than 600 points.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the rest of the major stock indexes just had one of the steepest one day declines since the May 6, 2010 “Flash Crash” occurred.