When Wall Street nearly collapsed

Would panic prevail? That was the question gripping the world in the days surrounding the fall of Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15, 2008. One year after that terrifying Monday, the people who struggled to cope with the financial crisis share what they were thinking as chaos broke out.

View photos

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks were set to open lower Friday after a government report showed durable goods orders declined in August.

At 8:45 a.m. ET, S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Dow Jones industrial average futures were all slightly lower after starting the morning moderately higher.

Futures measure current index values against their perceived future performance and offer an indication of how markets may open when trading begins.

Stocks touched one-year highs earlier in the week but have pulled back since Wednesday.

Economy: A Census Bureau report on durable goods showed orders slipped 2.4% in August after a 4.8% increase in July. Analysts surveyed by Briefing.com expect orders to have risen 0.4%. Excluding auto sales, goods orders showed a negligible decline. Economists forecast a 1% rise in goods orders excluding autos, compared to a 1.1% rise on that basis in the prior month. July's overall durable goods gain was mostly on Cash-for-Clunkers-backed auto sales.

The University of Michigan is set to issue a revised version of its consumer sentiment survey around 10 a.m. ET. Economists expect a slight rise in the index to 70.5, up from 70.2 in August.

New home sales for August also are due out at 10 a.m. ET. Experts anticipate sales of newly constructed homes to rise to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 440,000, up from 433,000 in July.

The economic leaders of the G-20 nations will continue to meet in Pittsburgh on Friday for the second day of their economic summit. On Thursday, the leaders voted in favor of President Obama's plan to replace the G-8, which does not include developing economies such as China, India and Brazil, with the G-20 as the preeminent global economic decision-making body.

Companies: Unilever (UN) offered $1.88 billion for the global body care unit of Sara Lee (SLE, Fortune 500).

After Thursday's close, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM) announced that quarterly revenue rose 37% and earnings per share, after adjustments, were $1.03, beating Wall Street's estimates by 3 cents. Shares were down 14% in premarket trading.

World markets: Global stock indexes struggled. In Asia, most markets finished the session lower. European shares seesawed and then fell in afternoon trading.

Other markets: The dollar turned mixed after continuing its widespread declines earlier in the morning. The dollar fell substantially against the Japanese yen in morning trading but turned slightly higher against the euro and pound

Oil turned lower on the durable goods orders news, falling 74 cents to $65.13 a barrel. Gold ticked down 10 cents to $997.40 an ounce.