Stocks in the U.S. followed the European and Asian markets and tumbled in early trading. The Dow went down below 400 points minutes after the opening bell and by mid morning was still showing a decline of 420 points. What’s even more telling is the investor pessimism about the direction the markets are going to take before the trading opens. Today's "trouble" was presaged by stock futures — essentially what investors are betting will happen after the opening bell — which fell so sharply that their trading had to be halted on Friday morning. Many market analysts are suggesting that the dynamics of the market behavior are now being driven by panic. Another barometer of what the economic future holds is the level of production in the former consumer goods manufacturing epicenters, such as Southern China. Because the global economic outlook is so grim, factories there are halting production—they can’t operate against dwindling orders for future shipments from their customers and projections of declining economic activity at the end of the year. In the heart of China’s export-oriented production, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Shenzhen, where factories have been employing millions of workers who came from all over China to crank out consumer electronics, toys and sneakers day and night, about 2.7 million workers are expected to be let go before the Chinese New Year. The estimates are that by then the overseas demand for products will have shrunk by 30 percent, as the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble spreads. OPEC cartel met today and ordered oil production to be cut by at least 1.5 million barrels a day, effective November 1. But reflecting the fundamental global downturn, oil futures and other commodities continued to fall after the announcement. Oil is now trading at $63 per barrel, more than half of its peak price of $147 per barrel this summer.