Another month on in 2014 and another battering for equity investors with Japan’s Nikkei Average ending down 4.2% this morning at 14,008 after US S&P 500 lost 2.3% last night in its worst trading day since June and hitting an October 2013 low.

A reality check for the stock markets of the world in January with heavy losses and a major bull back in the major indices after the over-exuberance of 2013. The U.S. market finished with its largest monthly fall since May 2012.