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· Historic market plunge: Traders describe a day that went from ‘uncertainty to panic’

Thursday’s plummet in U.S. stocks left some traders fearful over how much more pain they can withstand.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 10%, posting its largest one-day percentage drop since the October 1987 crash. That day, the Dow collapsed by more than 22%.

Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, said the economic damage is “deep and profound” and that “until we get to spring time when hopefully this goes away, we as investors are all flying blind.”

The volatility in the market has been relentless. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best fear gauge in the market, shot up to it its highest level since 2008 on Thursday, trading above 72.

Buying opportunities

Despite the sell-off, which has spooked investors and led to steeper losses, both Kilburg and Bookvar think this downturn can be an attractive buying opportunity for those with longer-term time frames.

“In this chaos, opportunity presents itself,” Kilburg said. When there’s a spike in the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, commonly referred to as Wall Street’s fear gauge, it’s time to buy stocks. It’s currently trading around 69 and Kilburg said he’s re-balancing portfolios and looking for attractive buying opportunities.

Rather than trying to call a bottom in stocks that have been hit especially hard, such as airlines and casinos, Maley instead advised choosing names with strong underlying fundamentals.

· Trading in India’s Nifty 50 was halted temporarily after the index dropped 10% and triggered a circuit breaker.

· Asian shares plunged, then recovered slightly as Friday the 13th brought still more turmoil to markets reeling from uncertainty over the coronavirus crisis.

Benchmarks in Japan, Thailand and India sank as much as 10% following Wall Street's biggest drop since the Black Monday crash of 1987.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell nearly 6%. India's Sensex yoyo'd between gains and losses after a 10% crash briefly halted trading. In Bangkok, the Thailand SET gained 0.5% after a temporary suspension of trading earlier in the day.

Markets worldwide have retreated as fears of economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis deepen and the meltdown in the U.S., the world's biggest economy, batters confidence around the globe.

But there were signs that government action was beginning to resonate with panicked investors as some ventured back into markets in search of bargains.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 jumped 4.4% to 5,539.30 after state and territorial leaders agreed to up spending to counter the impact of the viral outbreak that has spread from central China across the globe, infecting 128,000 people.

· Japan’s Nikkei share average tumbled to more than three-year lows on Friday as investors rushed out of stocks and real estate funds on fears the global coronavirus pandemic will bring a global recession and also scupper the Tokyo Olympics.

The Nikkei lost 6.08%, its biggest daily fall since 2013, to 17,431.05, a trough last seen in November 2016. On the week, it sank 15.99%, its second worst week ever after a 24.33% fall in early October 2008.

· Chinese shares and government bond futures fell on Friday, tracking global markets downwards after a meltdown triggered by intensifying fears over the spread of coronavirus around the world.

But equities losses were muted compared with other markets, checked by hopes that the virus outbreak was under control in China itself, and on expectations of further fiscal policy easing by Beijing to underpin the world’s second-largest economy.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended 1.2% lower, while the CSI300 shed 1.4%, after having dropped as much as 4.2% and 4.7%, respectively. For the week, SSEC was down 4.8%, while CSI300 dropped 5.9%, versus a 16.5% in the S&P500 index.