Financial turmoil continued to wreak havoc in the stock market Friday, as the Dow Jones industrials fell more than 400 points in the first 10 minutes of trading.
Investors fear a global recession is looming, and markets around the world were down sharply Friday.
Grim news from overseas has added to the worldwide gloom. Big companies including Sony and Daimler are warning of tough times ahead, joining U.S. companies in scaling back their earnings forecasts.
The Dow is down 444 at the 8,251 level. All the major indexs are down more than 4 percent.
A market analyst told CNBC that investors were in "panic mode" and predicted the market would close below 8,000 by the end of the day.
Turmoil in international markets helped drive the plunge in U.S. markets. In Asia, the Nikkei 225 tumbled 9.6% in Tokyo and the Kospi plunged 10.6% in South Korea. Europe stocks also were crushed, with the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 declining 6.6%. London's FTSE fell more than 8%, while German and French markets lost 10%.
The selling was prompted in part by signs that economies around the world are beginning to crack. Britain's economy contracted a worse-than-forecast 0.5% during the third quarter. The British pound plunged against the dollar, falling nearly 5% to $1.5522. The Korean economy grew at its weakest pace in four years during the third quarter. In another manifestation of recession fear, crude oil prices fell below $64 a barrel, even as OPEC decided to cut oil production by 1.5 million barrels a day to rebalance global oil markets.
Elsewhere, Denmark increased the rates on its certificates of deposits by half a point to protect its currency, a move similar to the one Hungary took earlier this week. Emerging-market credit spreads have been widening drastically over the past few days as investors become increasingly fearful that a developing nation will default on its debt.
Internet gossip Matt Drudge didn't let the economic crisis pass without attempting to blame the chaos on Barack Obama. The Drudge Report linked to a two-week old New York Post article attempting to blame an earlier market downturn on investors' fears of Obama's policies.
No serious economists were making that argument Friday.
AP reported the "common denominator was growing fears that governments, central banks and finance ministers seem powerless to stop the deepening of a global recession that will slam corporate earnings and lead to deep job losses around the world."
Financial turmoil continued to wreak havoc in the stock market Friday, as the Dow Jones industrials fell more than 400 points in the first 10 minutes of trading. 