DOW falls close to 1000 points within minutes then bounces

It was an incredible thing to watch last night as the U.S. market plummeted on seemingly nothing more than more negative reaction to the situation in Greece. Within minutes the Dow Jones Industrials had moved from around 250 points down, to being 992 down to hit 9,867 (-9%). FTSE 100 futures went several hundred points lower at the time. The index recovered relatively quickly and finished at 10,520 a decline of 3%. It was the larggest point drop since Feb. 10, 2009 and largest percentage decline since April 20, 2009, according to Dow Jones Indexes. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 82 points, or 3.4%, to 2,319.

The massive fall has been blamed on automated selling and a potential glitch trade. Shares of Procter & Gamble, one of the Dow components, dropped as much as 37% to under $40, but recovered to close down 2.3% at $60.75. Consultancy firm Accenture, fell to a penny before bouncing back to close at $41.09.