US stock market circuit breakers working as expected, says NYSE president

Safeguards in the US stock market are functioning as planned, the president of the New York Stock Exchange said on Monday, after a 7 per cent decline in the S&P 500 triggered a 15 minute trading pause shortly after the market opened.

"The market-wide circuit breakers are designed to slow trading down for a few minutes to give investors the ability to understand what's happening in the market," Stacey Cunningham, president of Intercontinental Exchange Inc's NYSE, told CNBC.