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More than US$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.

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Following a midday rally, North American stocks are fading again after a massive morning plunge pushed Canadian stocks to the lowest levels since 2013, with the Dow falling more that 1,000 points

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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 US$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.

At one point the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index came within 34 points of setting off a marketwide circuit breaker that would’ve shut down trading for 15 minutes to restore order. More than 2 billion shares changed hands in the first 30 minutes, almost one-third of what usually trades in a day.