U.S. stock index futures screamed lower on Monday, with Dow futures tumbling more than 700 points, as fears surrounding the health of China's economy multiplied.

The New York Stock Exchange is invoking Rule 48 for the Monday stock market open, Dow Jones reported.

The rule allows NYSE to open stocks without indications. "It was set up for situations like this," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderich Securities.

Before this week, Rule 48 was most recently invoked in January 2015. In all, Rule 48 has been invoked 67 times since it was approved in 2007, according to an NYSE spokeswoman. The goal of the rule is to ease market volatility.



The Dow futures held about 700 points lower, with the S&P futures off about 80 points, and the Nasdaq 100 futures off about 5 percent, which marks the lower end of the price limit.

The major averages are on track for one of their worst opens since the financial crisis of 2008.

These concerns saw the benchmark Shanghai Composite index notch up its biggest one-day percentage loss since 2007 on Monday, closing down 8.5 percent.

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