Today is the anniversary of Black Thursday, October 24, 1929.

[randomness]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929

Looks like they've staged a reenactment in the stock-index futures market.

Bloomberg, 45 minutes ago:

Trading in S&P 500 futures expiring in December on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has been limited to stop the contracts from falling below 855.20, the exchange said.

Trading below that level will resume when U.S. exchanges open for regular trading at 9:30 a.m. New York time, said Jeremy Hughes, a London-based spokesman for the CME.

6:57AM Edit: The Dow futures just hit its limit down:

Trading in futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been limited after declines in the contracts of more than 6 percent triggered a so-called limit down restriction.

Dow Average futures won't trade below the 8,224 level.

(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aZRWfr8j_IXc&refer=us)

8:35AM Edit: The NASDAQ didn't want to be left out. From http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/10/20/daily86.html:

Market officials said the 6 percent limit down trading curb would not allow the contracts to decline further until the Wall Street opening at 9:30 a.m. Nasdaq 100 futures reached their limit down of 84.75 points, or 6.8 percent, to 1168.50 at 6:55 a.m.

Who knows, maybe after everyone's had a chance to reflect, we'll have a bounce at market open. That's the way it's supposed to work, right?

Comments

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Or maybe not so much; maybe this time of year is more likely to have stocks plummet anyway...? (when did the stocks fall in the late 80's?)

October '87? Yah, it's been observed--by Fed chairman Bernanke, among others--that October sees more than its share of bad markets.

[drwex]

I don't expect a bounce, but I'm not expecting a trading halt today either. Most likely a 3-5% slide.

On the other hand, my predictions have SUCKED all week.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Most likely a 3-5% slide.

Ding ding ding! You win! Nice call.