If you are going to the financial district today

Take a good umbrella, it will be raining brokers.

Oy!

Japanese stocks plunged 9.4 percent Wednesday, leading the Nikkei 225 to at 9,203.32, the lowest since 2003. It was the biggest single-day loss in the index since October 1987. The selloff followed Tuesday’s drop of more than 3 percent. The index is now down 40 percent in 2008.

Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor and Honda Motor all fell more than 10 percent on expectations that the global downturn, and particularly the faltering U.S. economy, would hit their results.

In European morning trading, the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index, a barometer of euro zone blue chips, fell 7.2 percent. The FTSE 100 index in London declined 6.7 percent, the CAC-40 in Paris fell 8.2 percent, and the DAX in Frankfurt fell 7.5 percent.

In Moscow, the Micex index plunged 15.5 percent at the opening and exchange officials suspended trading until Friday.

Good thing Obama admires FDR because he's damned close to coming into office in a similar situation.