Wall St Braced For Plunge

Wall Street is braced for a heavy plunge this afternoon after the Dow Jones industrial average futures fell the maximum allowed limit of 550, or 6.27 percent, to 8,224. That triggered circuit breakers that automatically freeze selling until the market's open.

In pre-opening trade Morgan Stanley was down 13%, Goldman Sachs down 10% and Bank of America and Citigroup both down 8%.

The fall mirrors stock plunges around the world Friday. Japan's Nikkei stock average fell a staggering 9.60 percent. In Europe, Germany's benchmark DAX index was down a massive 10.76 percent, France's CAC40 was down 10 percent while the UK's FTSE 100 was 8.67 percent lower.