Dow Closes at Its Lowest Level in More Than Six Years

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

BREAKING NEWS> Dow Closes at Its Lowest Level in More Than Six Years

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/29278795

Dow Hits 6-Year Low as Banks Tank

Stocks tumbled Thursday as anxiety over how the Obama administration will fix the crippled financial system pushed the Dow to its lowest level in more than six years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed about 89.68, or 1.2 percent, ending at 7,465.95, its lowest close since October 2002.

The S&P 500 lost 1.2 percent to end at 778.94, while the Nasdaq dropped 1.7 percent to close at 1,442.82.

[islandmkl]

1. when will the meme start in the M$M: '..and in only four weeks...."

[bird gerhl]

2. Very sad

This makes me very sad :cry:

[Renew Deal]

3. w00t

:hide:

[snooper2]

4. let me know when it hit's rock bottom...

:)

I pulled everything out 3 years ago----

[newfie11]

15. Me too, Thank God! N/T

[mbperrin]

21. Good for you! We left in 99.

Based on the secular trend, I believe it's headed for 6000.

[seemslikeadream]

5. and some people want to hide their eyes

don't tell me bad news, I can't hear you

[No Elephants]

6. So, Wall Street doesn't like the Wall Street bailout?

[Mr. Hyde]

9. no confidence.

[No Elephants]

10. That was not intended very seriously, but where does Dr. Jekyll post?

[WhiteTara]

14. lol n/t

[TwixVoy]

11. It's not enough

what you (and most people don't realize) is just how much bad debt is out there. So much that no bail out can cover it all....

[No Elephants]

12. Again, it was intended as a light comment. With all due respect, you have no way of knowing what I

realize or don't realize. My son worked in the Trust Department of a large, international bank when that bank was becoming trustee for the secruityholders of one group of derivatives after another. So, I might just know a bit about it.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

7. I ran the numbers quickly. Total loss since the 14,000 and odd high

comes to about 48.3%. That's worse than the 1929 crash that kick started the depression.

The five worst bear markets:

5. 1929 crash - Loss 47.9%
4. 2007 - Pres - Loss appx 48.3%
3. 1907 - 1908 Panic - Loss 48.5%
2. 1937 - 1938 crash - Loss 58% (not cumulative with the rest of the GD)
1. 1930 - 1932 crash - Loss 86% (not cumulative with 1929 crash)

Fun times.

Edit to include 1929 crash and current situation

[Earth_First]

8. I wonder how this will affect the Asian markets tonight...

and the European markets early this morning.

...let alone the U.S. market tommorrow.

[wildflowergardener]

13. reason

I always find it interesting how they come up with a reason why the stock market is going up or down in the news reports.

How do they know it's lowered based on anxiety about Obama's plan - do they survey people?

I really just think they pick a reason out of the air and post it on the news.

[Still Sensible]

16. They assume

and they basically only talk to others that essentially think like them.

They don't like Obama's plans because they carry strings they don't want, oversight they don't want, and limit their options during the recovery. They don't like that there are limits to executive compensation because that is the pot o' gold they've been tapping for decades.

Whether or not they believe there is any value to Obama's plan, they are mostly supply sider republicans whose laissez faire capitalism model has proven itself a failure because of their greed. They pretty much have to say they are skeptical because otherwise they would be accepting their whole economic value system is a sham and a lie.

It's similar to when--to quote Cheney--"Reagan proved deficits don't matter." Up until the 80s, the dogma on deficits was that they were caused by deficit spending. That deficit spending was evil because it could eventually lead to runaway inflation. So when Reagan ran up record deficits and inflation remained well below what it had been in the 70s, the economic elite had to admit that the core bullshit they had been spouting for 50 years was flat out wrong.

[PurityOfEssence]

17. Be fair, that's actually somewhat parallel

The market runs on panic and infatuation, often grounded in less than nothing; it seems only fitting that explanations should also be plucked out of the thinnest of air.

Isn't it a fairly fair characterization if the bank stocks are going down just as the details of the plan are starting to ooze out? If Geithner really DOES put the banks to some kind of "stress test" like some dive test for a submarine on trials, wouldn't that spook the already spooked insiders even more? The big losers today were the bank stocks; what else could be causing that?

[Lucky Luciano]

18. Traders talk to a LOT of people doing a lot

of detective work trying to figure out the causes of what is going on...and some reporters talk to a bunch of traders to gather a consensus

Eventually a consensus can be gathered....but sometimes reportes make shit up.

[slipslidingaway]

19. Good graph of bear markets...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/10/11/business/20081011_BEAR_MARKETS.html


Some other numbers
http://www.fiendbear.com/bearenc1.htm

[Jack_DeLeon]

20. So how much longer till our 800 billion dollar "stimulus" kicks in.

n/t

[MetaTrope]

22. He should treat the crippled financial system as one does a crippled horse

Then maybe we can get back on track as a species.