It was bad here but in Europe it is real bad.
European markets plummeted at Friday's open, following the lead of markets in the Asia and Pacific region in response to the Dow's third biggest one-day point-loss ever on Thursday.
London's FTSE, the CAC in Paris and the XETRA DAX in Frankfurt, Germany were all down 10 percent at one stage before making a slight recovery.
Asia also closed down badly
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Exchange closed down 9.6 percent, as the Bank of Japan injected 4.5 trillion yen ($45 billion) into financial markets -- the largest single-day amount in history.
Meanwhile, the Australian All Ordinaries index closed more than 8 percent lower, and South Korea's KOSPI index finished the day off 4.3 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index and Mumbai's BSE SENSEX both were down 8 percent in afternoon trading.
This is serious stuff - a really black Friday. Will there be a response?
