Stock Market Plunges Over 6% Amid Coronavirus Fears & Crude Oil Price War, Trading Briefly Halted

The stock markets plunged again Monday morning due to fears over the coronavirus outbreak and sinking prices of oil.

The S&P 500 plunged about 7.4% within the first few minutes of the market opening, triggering an immediate pause in trading. Following the pause, stocks trimmed their losses leaving the index down 6%.

Trading has not been paused since 2008 during the financial crisis. The 15-minute pause is an automatic response to curb severe losses and has been in place since the 1987 Black Monday crash.

Another 15-minute pause would be triggered if losses dropped an additional 6% (to a total of 13%). If the market declines 20%, the market would close for the day. These circuit breaker protections only kick in until 3:25 ET, after which there are no pause protections.

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“Even though people are concerned it could create more problems, it does allow people to step back and re-assess what they’re doing,” Matt Maley, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co, told Time.  “The one thing is, it’s been a long time since any of these circuit breakers kicked in. Back then, it was positive. It allowed people to calm down a little bit.”

Other indexes fell as well, as investors backed out of the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,619 points, or 6.2%, and the Nasdaq gave up 5.6%.