The New York Stock Exchange just invoked an arcane rule last used after the Great Recession

New York Stock Exchange
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

In a sign of how badly the world has been rattled by the downturn in China's financial markets, the New York Stock Exchange invoked the rarely-used Rule 48 this morning.

Normally, before trading opens on the exchange floor, price indicators and other data are handed out to help traders determine the floor price of stocks before things get going. But if markets are sufficiently freaked out — or "volatile," to use the relevant parlance — invoking Rule 48 allows the NYSE to skip or simplify much of that process, so they can just get on with trading.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.