Bewildered news anchor says he 'needs to make some calls' live on air amid Black Monday chaos

Shanghai market closed down by seven per cent on Tuesday

David Faber during the Squawk on the Street report (CNBC, via YouTube)

A news anchor was overwhelmed live on camera as the Chinese stock market tanked but information remained scarce.

CNBC's David Faber was placed in the unenviable position common in the 24-hour news cycle of balancing continuous reporting with an absence of any hard information.

Mr Faber, who has hosted CNBC’s Squawk on the Street since 2005, watched with shock as stocks rapidly dropped in the first hours of the US market opening.

“I…I don’t… this is, uh… I… I got to make some phone calls,” the 51-year-old veteran journalist told co-cost Carlos Quintanilla.

The anchor, who has won a Peabody Award for his financial coverage of Walmart, added that “enormous moves” such as those seen could become “self-fulfilling” if they were over-emphasised.

He continued: “Verizon’s [the largest US communications provider] backed off a bit now. It’s down only 9.8 per cent, but some of the moves are dramatic and enormous and, uh… scary.”

Later on in the programme, Mr Faber had still not got a handle on the situation. A comparison to the 1987 stock market tumble by TV personality Jim Cramer got this response: “I’m going to make a couple of phone calls. I think I should do that.”

“I think you should,” Mr Cramer agreed.

China’s stock market collapse on Monday has prompted fears of a wider economic crash. The UK’s top companies have lost £218billion in the past ten days, although, as of Tuesday morning, European shares appeared to jump up following steep losses the previous day.