News came in on Wednesday night of a second circuit-breaker induced trading halt on the Chinese stock exchange on Thursday, with the index down 7% for a second time this week. Some people say the circuit-breakers are counter-productive, and that the stock market should be left to its own devices, to find a bottom. And what will happen on Friday? Will the circuit-breakers halt trading for a third time? We will all have to wait and see. And not panic. As Steve Mollman and Jennifer Timmons note in this article : in China’s volatile market a 5% drop or jump isn’t uncommon in a normal trading day. In the USA we say the market is ‘sharply down’ when it is down 2%.
