– The Nikkei 225 got wiped this morning in Asian trade. Japan’s benchmark index lost another 11% of its value. It is now touching 20-year lows.

– Other world markets India dropped 9.6% as Mumbai opened for business. South Korea fell as much as 9%, Hong Kong by 9.7%, Australia by 8.4% and in Singapore lost as much as 8.4%.

– European equities “collapsed,” according to the Financial Times, “left vulnerable after a dramatic late sell-off in New York extended the sustained losing streak on world stock markets.” London’s FTSE 100 sank as  much as 429 points to 3,884.6, a loss of 10%.

– US stock futures are pointing to another day of pain as sentiment hits new lows. “Dow industrial futures dropped 288 points. S&P 500 futures fell 35.4 points to 877.10 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 28.2 points to 1243.80,” reports the WSJ.

– The WSJ calls it “a slow-motion crash” that has pulled the market down more than 20% over that brief period.

– Oil prices plummeted to a one-year low below $83 a barrel following the rout. “Light, sweet crude for November delivery was down $4.00 to $82.59 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by mid-afternoon in Singapore.”

– According to MarketWatch, “US authorities are considering radical new measures to shore up ailing financial markets, including guaranteeing billions in bank debt and insuring all US bank deposits for a temporary period.”

Backing all US bank deposits, a measure which is currently only at the discussion stage, would be aimed at preventing a further exodus of cash from financial institutions, including small and regional banks, The Journal reported. The move is being floated as banking customers have pulled money out of healthy community banks under the assumption that only deposits held at larger financial institutions would be backed by government guarantees in the event of a failure.

 

Removing the ceiling on deposit insurance would require multiple government agencies to agree that a “systemic risk” exists, thereby invoking a rarely used legal power. Some banking regulators say the move is justified following repeated efforts by the federal government to prop up ailing institutions.

– Gold futures climbed $36 to $922.50 an ounce.

– Bloomberg reports that “the yen headed for its biggest weekly gain in a decade against the dollar as the global stock-market rout caused investors to sell higher-yielding assets funded with the Japanese currency.”

– The euro traded at $1.3579, down from US$1.3661 late Thursday in New York.