Following news that Ben Bernanke stated that the Central Bank may cut back on efforts to stimulate the economy, stock markets around the globe plunged on Thursday.

Bernanke said Wednesday that assuming that the American economy doesn’t falter in the coming months, the Fed is likely to trim its asset purchases later in the year. The Central Bank purchases $85 billion worth of securities monthly. It is widely believed that the Fed will cut bond purchases by $20 billion by September’s policy meeting. Those purchases may end completely by 2014.

The news caused investors to move quickly to sell stocks with the prospects of a tighter U.S. monetary policy.

Even if the Central Bank begins trimming asset purchases, Benanke says that the key lending rate will stay at its present level until the jobless rate drops another percentage point. Unemployment rates rose slightly in May to 7.6% up .01% from April.

In the U.S. the S&P is down -2.02% at 1596.13, and the DOW was down -1.88% at 14828.01.

Key exchanges in Asia dropped by 2% and more, exchanges in Paris, Frankfurt and London dropped by 3% by closing.