In fourth-quarter 2008, the 10, 20 and 30-percent decline levels, respectively, in the DJIA will be as follows:

Level 1 Halt
A 1,100-point drop in the DJIA before 2 p.m. will halt trading for one hour; for 30 minutes if between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.; and have no effect if at 2:30 p.m. or later unless there is a level 2 halt.

Level 2 Halt
A 2,200-point drop in the DJIA before 1:00 p.m. will halt trading for two hours; for one hour if between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.; and for the remainder of the day if at 2:00 p.m. or later.

Level 3 Halt
A 3,350-point drop will halt trading for the remainder of the day regardless of when the decline occurs.
Background:
Circuit-breakers are calculated quarterly. The percentage levels were first implemented in April 1998 and are adjusted on the first trading day of each quarter. In 2008, those dates are Jan. 2, April 1, July 1 and Oct. 1.

'Black Friday'
In Australia, where the S&P/ASX200 plummeted a record 8.3 percent, market watchers were calling it "Black Friday."

"It's way oversold in my opinion, and we haven't reached the bottom yet," said Roger Chandler, senior private client adviser with ABN AMRO Morgans in Sydney.

Key indices in Hong Kong, India and Singapore were all down about 7 or 8 percent. Mainland China's Shanghai Composite Index posted a more moderate decline of 3.6 percent.

Europe plummets
As Europe opened, major markets also plunged. Britain's FTSE 100 index slid about more than 5 percent, while Germany's DAX was down 7 percent.

Investors in Japan were also unnerved by news that a mid-sized Japanese insurer, Yamato Life Insurance Co., went bankrupt Friday on losses related to global stock woes — one of the first to do so in Japan.

In Tokyo, the gut-wrenching turmoil left individual investors shellshocked. Over the last week, the Nikkei has lost nearly a quarter of its value.

Kenji Akasaka, 69, president of a local printing company, said he had never seen it this bad in the 40 years he has traded stocks.

He said he invests mainly in blue-chips including Toyota Motor Corp. and Nintendo Co., both of which have lost about half their value over the last year.

"I pray before I go to bed that the Dow will recover," said Akasaka, 69, as he scanned a monitor displaying the latest market levels. "I get sleepless, thinking about losses."


Regulators in Russia ordered Moscow's MICEX not to open for regular trading at the usual time, and the opening of the RTS was also postponed until further notice, the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency said.