Recession Fears (Down Global Market)

Recession Fears Drive Down Global Markets

Traders in Tokyo gaze at a display as Japan's key stock index nose-dives. A recession-driven wave of selling swept across Asian and European markets on Friday amid tumbling corporate profits and a poor growth report from the U.K. (Photo: Associated Press)

U.S. stocks plummeted in pre-market trading this morning and pre-trading on the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell by so much that pre-market trading was halted.

The markets will still open this morning. The New York Stocks Exchange halts trading for limited amounts of time when losses reach pre-set levels-- a 10 percent in most cases.

In pre-market trading, all three indices are down more than 6 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 6.3 percent, or 550 points, while the broader Standards & Poor's 500 was down 6.6 percent or 60 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 6.7 percent, or 85 points.

The big drop in futures trading is foreshadowing a miserable day in trading and raises the risk that a sell off could reach the point that regular trading would be halted. Investors have grown increasingly unnerved by a series of poor earnings reports and that the financial crisis would weigh down corporate profits into 2009. That fear has overshadowed signs that government efforts to stem the financial crisis and encourage banks to lend to each other are beginning to work.

Wall Street appears set to follow overseas markets into a major sell off. The FTSE in London is down 8 percent, while the Dax in Germany fell 9 percent. Things are also dour in Asia. The Nikkei in Japan is down 9.6 percent.