Friday morning trading in Wall Street was chaotic. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped by more than 330 points. If it drops by 1,100 points before 2 pm, the New York Stock Exchange will activate “circuit breakers” that will temporarily shutdown the market to minimize losses. This is something that hasn’t been done since 1997. Before it opened, Dow futures had dropped 550 points which already triggered a trading halt in stock futures contracts to slow the decline.

Stock markets worldwide already plummeted Friday with oil prices taking a nose dive to the lowest levels in more than a year. Even the more stable gold prices fell sharply. Amid fears that worldwide financial markets are declining, many fear that governments and banks are not capable of resolving the deepening global recession.

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