Trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange was suspended for one hour on the afternoon of April 7, the exchange’s operator said, citing concerns about market stability. 

The move coincided with the opening of the New York Stock Exchange, which followed through as scheduled but opened deep in the red. Within minutes, the Dow Jones had plunged 3.2%, the S&P 500 fell 3.6% and the Nasdaq dropped 3.9%.

The halt in Warsaw came into effect at 3:15 pm and lasted for an hour, with continuous trading resuming at 4:30 pm following an interim order collection phase. The bourse said the suspension was due to concerns about "safety of the trading."

Earlier in the day, shares on the Warsaw market had already been tumbling, with widespread losses sparked by US President Donald Trump’s announcement of import tariffs last week. 

The Warsaw bourse’s main index, the WIG, was down 1.82% when the suspension announcement came out. The GPW had experienced sharper losses last Friday –exceeding 6% – without any suspension.

“This was most likely an attempt by the Warsaw Stock Exchange to freeze trading at the same time as the US markets opened,” Piotr Kuczyński, an analyst at Xelion, told the broadcaster TVN24. 

“I’ve been an analyst for 32 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. I can't explain it. I hope the exchange will offer some clarification,” Kuczyński also said.

Market turbulence was not limited to Poland. 

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei was down nearly 7% as it opened in the morning European time, while South Korea’s KOSPI fell 5%. The Shanghai Composite lost 6.5%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng nosedived 10%. 

The rout extended to Europe, where Germany’s DAX sank 7%, Italy’s benchmark dropped more than 7%, France’s CAC40 slid nearly 6%, and the UK’s FTSE 100 lost over 5%.