UK Vote to Leave European Union Causes Worldwide Financial Shockwaves (UPDATE)

From the pound to Asian stock markets to the zloty, markets are in free fall after the UK votes to leave the EU.

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UPDATE 4:06 p.m. EST: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 600 points by closing Friday following the controversial Brexit vote, NBC Newsreports.​

See original story below.

After the announcement early Friday morning that the United Kingdom voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the European Union, markets all over the world reacted by going into steep decline.

The vote found London, Scotland, and Northern Ireland overwhelmingly for remaining in the EU, but the rest of England and Wales voted strongly for what has been dubbed "Brexit," for "British exit."

Before the results were even final, the British pound already slumped to its lowest rate in over 30 years, as its rate against the dollar fell almost 10 percent

It is continuing to fall against other currencies as well, tumbling 8.57 percent against the Swiss Franc and a whopping 13.77 percent against the Yen.

The Euro, which early in the week had been hovering around 1.13 to the dollar, was rapidly heading towards parity.

Asian markets in both Japan and Hong Kong were also falling rapidly, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars in market capitalization.

Central banks in many Asian countries were already taking steps to ensure liquidity as needed to avoid a crisis, according to Bloomberg.

Just after final results of the vote were announced, South Korea said it was holding  an "emergency meeting in Seoul to discuss ways to fend off any possible fallout from the Brexit with officials from the Financial Services Commission, the Bank of Korea (BOK) and the Financial Supervisory Commission."

Even currencies in Poland and Hungary are losing value after the vote, as investors are moving their money to safer places where possible. Italian and Spanish bonds are also declining.

In the United States, stock futures tumbled so low that they set off a pre-arranged trading curb

The Bank of England issued a statement about the chaos, saying it "has undertaken extensive contingency planning and is working closely with HM Treasury, other domestic authorities and overseas central banks. The Bank of England will take all necessary steps to meet its responsibilities for monetary and financial stability." 

As a result of the vote, even Britain's AAA Standard and Poor's credit rating seems to be at serious risk.

The one bright spot in all of this (at least for survivalists and libertarians) is that gold prices have shot up 8 percent.

More to come on this story as events develop.

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