Dubai: After suffering the worst week in four years, trading in S&P 500 index futures and Dow Jones futures hit the circuit breaker and have been halted.
The New York Stock Exchange on Monday invoked the rarely used "Rule 48" on market volatility to ease market opening.
Stocks plummeted in early trading, with the Dow Jones Industrial average dropping more than 1,000 points on Monday opening, or more than 6 per cent to 15,416.74.
The financial market meltdown that started in Asia engulfed the US futures markets, with NASDAQ futures falling limit down.
NASDAQ futures fell 4.96 per cent to 3,992.25, while Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell 3.94 per cent at 15,819.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes were poised to slip into correction territory, or 10 percent off their 52-week highs.
The Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq 100 slid into a correction zone on Friday.
Share prices across the world have reflected the downward in prices of oil, which crumbled Monday below $39 per barrel for 1st time since 2009.
Europe's Stoxx 600 index fell 5.3%, its worst one-day drop since 2011.
