When I think about global stock markets these days, the image that springs to mind is the final scene of The Italian Job — the 1969 original, not the tacky 2003 remake.

‘Hang on a minute, lads,’ says Charlie Croker, Michael Caine’s heistmaster-in-chief, as he and his rogue brethren balance precariously in a bus loaded with gold on the edge of an Alpine cliff.