Round up of the news so far:

Yamato Life Insurance Co., a Japanese insurer, filed for court protection from creditors in the nation’s first bankruptcy in the industry in seven years, with debt exceeding assets by 11.5 billion yen ($116 million). It had exposure to US debt through its stock holdings. Japan says its exposure is limited, but I don’t see this as a good sign.

Notice, the first shoe to drop in Europe was also an insurance company, the Belgian Fortis. AIG was, of course, an insurance company and it sold insurance to banks all around the world.

The Tokyo index was down nearly 10%, along with big sell-offs in Asia, including a 9% drop in the Sensex in India and an Australian sell-off so bad it’s being called “Black Friday.” Trading was suspended in Vienna, following a 10% fall at the opening bell; Russian and Indonesian markets have been shut.

European stocks are down, with the UK’s FTSE-100 down 7.3%, German’s DAX down 7.7 %, and France‘s CAC-40 down 7.5 %. The collapse of Yamato Life Insurance pushed the Nikkei 225 to 9.6 %.

Market futures are pointing to more sell-off, with the Dow looking at a fall of over 300 points. Brace yourself for some more pain.

Update: As I write, markets opened 5% down (over 600 points) – anticipating Lehman CDS settlement and further damage to Goldman and Morgan Stanley, following downgrades by Moody’s. GE earnings came in in line with expectations, 10% down year-over-year.

Here are the stats at 10.14 AM

8,600.93
Trade Time:	10:12AM ET
Change:	21.74 (0.23%)
Prev Close:	9,258.10
Open:	9,261.69
Day’s Range:	7888.48 – 8668.39
52wk Range:	8,523.27 – 14,280.00

Japan has held off joining the near universal rate-cut, which is a good sign, and the yen is up against the dollar as investors are betting on it being healthier than European currencies. Yen is trading around 99 to the buck this morning after falling to around 97 earlier.