Wall Street suspended trading for second time this week after the Standard & Poor’s 500 plunged 7 percent just minutes into Thursday’s session.

The New York Stock Exchange triggered the forced 15-minute trading halt known as a circuit breaker to stop the free-fall and give traders time to recalibrate. The rarely used lever comes as the coronavirus’s accelerating spread and worsening economic outlook have rattled global markets for weeks.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq cratered into a bear market on Thursday as a shock move by President Donald Trump to suspend travel from Europe rattled investors already shaken by fears of a global recession on the back of a coronavirus pandemic.

Trading on Wall Street was halted minutes after the opening bell as the S&P 500 slid 7% and triggered a 15-minute cutout. The indexes are now more than 24% below their intraday record highs hit in February.

U.S. stocks slumped sharply at the open on Friday, retreating from record closes on Thursday, after investors reeled from a one-two punch of escalating tensions in the Middle East and a U.S. manufacturing activity index plumbing its lowest level since June 2009.

U.S. stocks are poised for their best annual performance in six years, driven by the big technology companies that have led the decadelong bull market run.

An improving economic outlook, progress between the U.S. and China on trade negotiations and three interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve have boosted investors’ confidence that the expansion can continue.

Major U.S. stock-market benchmarks ended Monday’s session at records as investors remained attuned to developments in the U.S.-China trade relationship and cheered a wave of merger activity.

How did the major benchmarks fare?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.68% advanced 190.85 points, or 0.7%, to end at 28,066.47, while the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.32% climbed 112.60 points, or 1.3%, to 8,632.49. The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.75% ended 23.35 points higher at 3,133.64, a gain of 0.8%.