U.S. Stocks Set for Major Declines Friday

Updated from 7 a.m. EDT

Premarket futures were forecasting a sharply lower open for stocks on Wall Street Friday, as fear of a global economic slowdown intensified and world indices fell dramatically.

Futures for the S&P 500 were down 60 points at 855 and were 52 short of fair value. Nasdaq futures were down 85 at 1169 and were 73 below fair value. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 550 points at 8224.

Premarket futures are limit-down, meaning that they cannot exceed a given loss. In a sign of deep investor trepidation, futures for the S&P 500, the Dow and the Nasdaq were all trading with their maximum permissible losses.

"Right now it's panic selling. Where it will end, nobody knows," said Doug Roberts, chief investment officer at ChannelCapitalResearch.com. He said that funds are continuing to liquidate, and broad selloffs in overseas markets are stoking investor fear. As a result, it's too soon to tell whether the market is reaching capitulation levels.

On Thursday, stocks ended a volatile session with mixed results as energy stocks rallied and traders assessed a series of gloomy corporate earnings forecasts.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities weren't the only asset class in deep trouble during the final session of the week. Crude oil was dropping $3.30 to $64.54 a barrel. OPEC announced that it would reduce production by 1.5 million barrels a day in an effort to support falling prices. Gold was losing $25.30 to $689.40 an ounce.

In a sign that investors were looking for safety, longer-dated U.S Treasury securities were skyrocketing in price. The 10-year note was up 1-9/32, yielding 3.52%. The 30-year was up 3-4/32 to yield 3.88%.