The Dow Jones average fell another 4.7 percent today:
Shares on Wall Street tumbled more than 4 percent on Wednesday as frightened investors wondered how long the economic slowdown will last, how deep it will cut, and whether Washington can do anything to stanch the bleeding.
Financial markets compounded their early losses in afternoon trading, ending down for a third day. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 411.30 points or 4.73 percent, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down more than 5 percent for the day and nearly 9 percent for the week.
“It’s just a downward spiral caused by fear,” said Richard Sparks, senior equity analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “We’ve got bad news everywhere.”
Wall Street spent the day looking at Washington for guidance and reassurance, and investors did not like what they saw, analysts said.
“Wall Street is increasingly taking its cues from D.C.,” Marc Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, said by e-mail message. “Policymakers are deciding who survives and who doesn’t.”
The financial markets had been trading down all morning, but began a sharp slide just before Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. appeared at a lectern to discuss the $700 billion financial bailout. Mr. Paulson said government assets would not be used to buy troubled assets, as originally planned, but would instead go to buying stock in banks and infusing money into other financial institutions.
And speaking of the bailout, here’s how the Dow has done since the bailout bill was signed into law on October 3rd:
That’s a drop of 2,042.72 points, or 19.78%, since the government rode to the rescue.
Yea, that’s working out well.
