Bleak Reports Keep Markets in Free Fall

[groovedaddy]

The political world shifted on Tuesday, but the change did little to ease the anxiety on Wall Street.

Despite stabilization in the credit markets and lower interest rates around the globe, the last two days were the worst in the American stock market since 1987. In 48 hours, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped nearly 1,000 points, and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a broader measure of stocks, lost nearly 10 percent of its value.

“Normally markets are driven by fear and greed,” said Brian Gendreau, a strategist at ING Investment Management in New York. “Now it’s fear and fear.”

There were no clear catalysts that spurred the sell-off — which dragged the Dow lower on Thursday by 443.48 points — beyond the regular drumbeat of poor earnings from the corporate sector and bleak data on the economy. Those reports have been arriving almost daily for the last few weeks, signs of a recession that many fear will be darker than anyone imagined just a year ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/business/07markets.html?th&emc=th

[4_TN_TITANS]

1. At one time I thought

that the country would at least limp across the finish line of *'s Residency. Even that's looking doubtful now.