Trading was briefly halted Thursday for the second time this week as stocks dropped following the President Donald Trump’s travel ban speech Wednesday.
The New York Stock Exchange has a series of “circuit breakers” in place to calm investors’ nerves when they’re panicked.
Stocks tripped a circuit breaker Thursday morning shortly after trading began.
The S&P 500 fell by more than 7%, halting trading for 15 minutes. The circuit breaker tripped for the first time during this rout on Monday, as coronavirus fears grew and oil prices plunged.
The next circuit breaker would be if the market falls by 13%. That would pause trading for another 15 minutes.
If the market plunged 20%, trading would stop for the day.
Circuit breakers pause and ultimately halt trading to avoid a repeat of “Black Monday” on Oct. 19, 1987, when the Dow crashed 22.6% in a single day.
