Hour of Panic: GE Plunged 21% and Markets Flirted With Abyss

General Electric Co.'s Aviation Test Facility Ahead of Earnings Figures

Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
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More than $50 billion of market value was erased from the world’s 10th biggest company. A gauge of market stress got too jammed up to function. The largest technology stocks recorded a correction -- in the space of a few seconds.

Such was the drama at the open of trading in the American equity market Monday, when waves of global selling battered stocks with almost unprecedented force. At its worst, about $1.2 trillion of market value had been erased from U.S. shares before prices leveled off and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded almost 1,000 points.