S&P 500 sinks 7 percent, triggering pause for 1st time since 2008

New York Stock Exchange trading was paused Monday morning as the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both took a dive.

After the S&P 500 fell seven percent on Monday morning, and after the Dow plunged more than 1,800 points, a "circuit breaker" was almost immediately triggered to pause trading for 15 minutes, NBC News reports. This was the first time the breaker had been triggered since December 2008, during the financial crisis, Bloomberg reports. The S&P 500 that day ended down 8.9 percent.

This comes not only amid growing anxiety over the spread of the new coronavirus, but after Saudi Arabia slashed oil export prices by almost 10 percent over the weekend and after crude fell more than 20 percent. Analyst Sebastien Clements said per The Associated Press, "A blend of shocks have sent the markets into a frenzy on what may only be described as 'Black Monday.'"

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Trading soon resumed, but if the S&P 500 were to fall 13 percent, per The New York Times, this would trigger another pause.