The world financial crisis has taken a brutal turn for the worse today, with the US Market Futures, an indication of how the US Markets will open at 'Limit Down'.  This means that trading on the futures markets are effectively suspended because they have gone down too much.  The trigger is 550 points down on the Dow Futures, which points to about a 600 point drop on the Dow when trading begins at 14:30 UK.  Because there is now no knowing where the Dow will open, although its obviously going to be more than 600 points lower, the real fears are now that the main markets may trip their own circuit breakers, halting trading for only the second time in their history.  The first circuit breaker will force a one hour trading halt should the Dow drop 1,100 points.

So what are the circuit breaker levels on the NYSE?

Well, the circuit breakers are calculated on a quarterly basis, with the figure for the first circuit breaker which trips an hours trading halt, coming in at 10% to the downside.  That figure in this instance is 1,100.

The futures are very similar in terms of Limit Down.  In this instance, the Limit Down percentage is 5%.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the FTSE 100 is down 325 points as I write this at 13:30, after the UK announced that GDP for the third quarter was down 0.5% pointing to a recession in the UK.

European markets are not fairing much better.

Updates to come, buckle up, its Black Friday on Wall Street.

 Article from: Political Skew