I mean the fear that something worse would happen. If the markets only moved a 3% that's more like business-as-usual end of a cycle for them, I would say.
Today's market player acts like they think a -5% dip is a panic... and the Fed should "step in an do something about it". Ridiculous! Today we label a -20% dip as a "bear market". That's stupid, too! Years ago, a -25% down move was regarded as "mere noise". A bear market character is like Cathie Wood's ARKK... multi-month, grinding down, no genuine upside relief in sight... losing money almost every day...despair setting in. When the entire market is doing that... THEN you'll see a real "bear"market.
an exit out of all equities because a recession hurts almost everyone (except Repo men), just some less than others. Further rising interest rates in the short term cause your discount factor to increase when valuing stocks so all stocks should trade lower, again some more than others.
Yen collapse is interesting as well. I assume it is collapsing because they refuse to end ZIRP & NIRP. If that's true then the Euro is about to collapse as well since the ECB pretty much abandonded any hope of normalizing rates. NIRP is really a disaster for your economy.
Never go cashless in bear market. Bear has strong up momentum, just wait for the right moment to make the trade.
No stocks are ever recession-proof. Some might go down less than others but they are all affected by the overall market.