Trading on futures contracts on the S&P 500 was briefly halted Friday morning as the stock market rout intensified. After falling 5%, the circuit breaker was triggered and trading was halted until the 9:30 a.m. EDT open.

Rumours and speculation are running rampant and companies are being punished.

General Electric reported earnings in line with estimates, but its shares are down after it was granted access to the Fed's discount window.

U.S. equity markets are sharply lower with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 530 points, or 6%, to 8184, the S&P 500 down 54 points, or 6%, to 864 and the Nasdaq down 37 points to 1236.

The Eurostoxx opened down 211 points, or 9.3%, to 2081, the UK FTSE 100 opened down 382 points, or 8.5%, to 3932 and the German DAX opened down 466 points, or 10%, to 4421.

U.S. two-year yields are up 4.6 bps to 1.58%, with five-year yields up 12.3 bps to 2.80%, 10-year yields up 6.8 bps to 3.85% and 30-year yields down 1.1 bps to 4.09%. The Eurodollar March 09 contract is up 19.5 ticks to 97.75. The yield curve is steeper, with the 10/2-year spread up 3.1 bps to 227.67 bps.

Yields on two-year Canadian government bonds are up 10.0 bps to 2.23%, with five-year yields up 11.3 bps to 2.90%, 10-year yields up 13.2 bps to 3.77% and 30-year yields up 6.1 bps to 4.22%. The December 08 BAX contract is flat at 97.53.

In Germany, returns on two-year German bonds are down 12.0 bps to 2.96%, with five-year yields up 2.0 bps to 3.53%, 10-year yields up 7.5 bps to 3.95% and 30-year yields up 14.6 bps to 4.36%.

Yields on UK two-year bonds are down 11.3 bps to 3.50%, with five-year yields down 2.6 bps to 4.10%, 10-year yields up 6.7 bps to 4.43% and 30-year yields up 6.5 bps to 4.44%.

Asian markets were lower, with the Japanese Nikkei closing down 881 points to 8276 and the Hang Seng Index closing down 1146 points to 14797.

The Canadian dollar is down 0.0215 to 0.8537 against the U.S. dollar (1.1715 USD/CAD) and down 2.32 to 84.47 against the yen.

The U.S. dollar is down 0.86 to 98.95 against the yen and the Dollar Index is up 0.552 to 81.715.

The euro is down 0.0067 to 1.3538 against the U.S. dollar, up 0.0212 to 1.5858 against the Canadian dollar, down 0.0030 to 0.7927 against the pound sterling and is lower by 1.82 to 133.98 against the yen.

The pound sterling is down 0.0013 to 1.7085 against the U.S. dollar and up 0.0342 to 2.0006 against the Canadian dollar.

WTI crude oil is down $7.49 to $79.10. The front month gold contract at the Chicago Board of Trade is up $26.10 to $912.60 per ounce.

All data taken at 9:24 a.m. EDT.

By Adam Button, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Sarah Sussman, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

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