AFTER THE market crash in 1987, Dow Jones saw the biggest intraday loss till now, due to a Citigroup trading error as per CNBC. The Dow Jones today saw its Industrial Average fall by 997 points due to volatile trading. By late Thursday afternoon, it began to rebound sharply.

Falling by nearly 10 per cent, it led to reporters on the trading floor watching in shock, as the numbers continued to tumble and soon led to a quick investigation into what was happening. This free fall, coupled with the situation in Europe saw a fall in the Euro and bonds from Greece, Spain and Italy surged, fueled by concern that the nations were doing less than required to combat their debt crisis.

CNBC reported that a trader error had caused the sharp swing, when, according to them, a trader entered "b" for billion instead of "m" for million in a possible trade involving Proctor & Gamble.

Burt White, chief Investment officer, LPL Finacial said, “It's panic selling. There's concern that the European situation might cool down global growth and freeze the credit markets.”

When the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded, it cut the fall by nearly 997 points, to 388 points. On the other hand, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell by 8.6 per cent, its biggest fall ever since the one in December 2008. Later, the net losses, post the rebound, were reduced to 4.1 per cent.