Stock futures, essentially what investors are betting will happen after the [opening] bell [on a given day], fell so sharply [today] that their trading had to be halted. The size of the declines had reached a set limit, with futures on the Dow Jones industrial average down by 550 points.
Dismal corporate earnings and poor economic data around the world were the immediate causes for the sell-off, which sent major exchanges in Tokyo, London and Berlin down by more than 8 percent.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index plunged 9.6 percent, hitting its lowest level since April 2003.
“There’s a lot of panic out there today,” Scott Fullman, a strategist at WJB Capital Group in New York, told The Associated Press. “People have been saying that we’re in a recession. This is the realization.”
Investors are concerned that a radical slowdown will harm companies’ profitability more than previously feared, concerns that appeared to be borne out as a string of companies issued worse-than-expected results.