Wall Street exchanges tumbled at Tuesday’s opening bell, following Japan’s stock market downward as the earthquake-shattered country faces an unfolding nuclear crisis, MSNBC reported.

At 9:08 a.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was down by more than 250 points to 11,736.74, a drop of 2.14 percent. The Nasdaq index was down 68 points, or 2.54 percent, and the Stanard & Poor’s 500 was down 2.35 percent to 1,265.90.

Japan’s Nikkei stock index nose-dived nearly 11 percent today after a radiation leak was detected at a crippled power plant and residents were warned to stay indoors, sending global equities sharply lower in what could be a prolonged bout of turmoil for the world’s financial markets.

Investors felt the biggest shock waves when Japan’s prime minister announced that radioactive material had leaked from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant and that more leaks were possible. People living within 19 miles (30 kilometers) of the complex were told to stay indoors.

The chill was felt in Europe, where shares were sharply lower. Oil prices fell further below $100 a barrel.

On the commodities exchanges, however, corn, wheat and soybean futures rose on speculation that Japan will step up grain purchases once ports and milling operations reopen, Bloomberg reported. Japan, the largest importer of U.S. corn and second-biggest buyer of wheat, may need to purchase more to guarantee food supplies.

The tsunami disrupted as much as 20 percent of Japan’s livestock-feed output, and operations unloading imported grain from vessels to storage facilities have been suspended at four ports in the north, the country’s agriculture ministry said.

Japan is “going to need more food, more meat and probably more grains eventually, if some of theirs got wiped out,” said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, a partner at Summit Commodity Brokerage in Urbandale.