Wild Market Stats: 'Rule 48,' Treasury Yields, Losing Streaks

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, the market has been a little nuts over the past week. After wrapping up their worst week since 2011, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and its major index peers plummeted out of the gate, with the blue-chip barometer dropping more than 1,000 points (and hitting a new annual low) at its intraday bottom.  That said, here are some interesting market stats:

• Ahead of the bell, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) invoked Rule 48 for the first time since the January blizzard.

• Things were so hectic, several brokerages -- including TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NYSE:AMTD) -- experienced "industry-wide latency issues."

• The S&P 500 Index (SPX) is on pace for a third straight drop of more than 2% -- a volatility alarm that hasn't been sounded in more than a decade.

• The Nasdaq Composite (COMP) initially fell below 4,300 for the first time since October. If the COMP surrenders triple-digits again today, it'll be a third straight session.

• Most major indexes are in "correction" territory -- usually measured by 10% off a recent high.

• The 10-year Treasury yield breached 2% for the first time in almost four months, after suffering its biggest weekly drop since March.

• Stocks in Germany and France are just off their worst day since 2011, while London's FTSE suffered its steepest drop since 2009 to extend its longest losing streak in 12 years.

• The Shanghai Composite fared even worse, suffering its sharpest one-day percentage plunge since 2007.

• Oil is plumbing new six-year lows, weighing on energy names.

• Friday marked the second biggest options day ever. At last check, about 8.5 million calls and 11.6 million puts had traded across all 12 options exchanges today.

• After more than doubling last week -- the biggest weekly percentage gain of the modern era -- the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) skyrocketed to territory not charted since early 2009, reflecting widespread fear. "Early action in SPX options, which are used to calculate VIX, was so chaotic that quotes were either zero or so wide that they were unusable in the calculation," reported Trade-Alert's Henry Schwartz.

• VIX option volume is running at twice the normal intraday clip, with calls trading at five times the pace of puts. The "fear gauge's" 30-day at-the-money implied volatility is at an annual high.

• The Options Clearing Corporation's (OCC) all-exchange, all-equity put/call volume ratio hit 1.44 on Friday, marking the largest daily reading ever (going back to 2009), per Schaeffer's Quantitative Analyst Chris Prybal (see chart below).