Wall Street Plummets After Britain's 'Brexit' Vote

Great Britain's "Brexit" vote to leave the European Union wreaked havoc on Wall Street on Friday.

The Dow Jones closed down 611.21 points (-3.39%) at the close of the week on fears over how Britain's exit will affect the world economy. It was the biggest one-day drop in 10 months.

The British pound fell more than 11 percent and the Dow Jones briefly dropped more than 500 points at opening. The Dow Jones rallied to be down 405 points, or 2.25 percent, at 10:15 a.m. ET. But it was again below 500 at 1:15 p.m. on Friday — where it remained. The pound steadied Friday afternoon, down about 9 percent at the end of the trading day.

The S&P 500 lost 3.6 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 4.1 percent Friday.

The international reaction to "Brexit" is one of the biggest financial blows since the 2008 crisis. Britain voted 51.9 percent to leave the European Union, a move which prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to announce he would be stepping down in October.

Americans were concerned Friday about how "Brexit" would affect the pound and the euro, but they were also concerned about how it would affect house prices, immigration and the stock market, according to Google Trends data.

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