U.S. Stocks Tumble, Sending S&P 500 Below 1,000; (Worst Yearly Drop since 1937)

[Roland99]

Source: Bloomberg

Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Index below 1,000 for the first time since 2003, on speculation banks and real-estate companies are running short of money as the credit crisis worsens.

...

The S&P 500 slid 60.66 points, or 5.7 percent, to 996.23, extending its 2008 tumble to 32 percent in the market's worst yearly slump since 1937. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 508.39, or 5.1 percent, to 9,447.11. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 5.8 percent to 1,754.88. Fourteen stocks fell for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

``We've approached the edge of the cliff,'' Leon Cooperman, 65, who manages $6 billion at hedge fund Omega Advisors Inc., said at the Value Investing Congress in New York. ``Do we go over the cliff or begin to recede? History says we recede, but there's no guarantee. This is the most difficult financial environment I've lived through.''

The S&P 500 Financials Index slumped 12 percent to below its lowest level since 1997 even after Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled he is ready to cut interest rates. The S&P 500's 15 percent retreat since Sept. 30 is the third-steepest five-day drop on record, according to Bespoke Investment Group LLC, a Harrison, New York-based research firm. The bigger slumps occurred in 1932.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahr...

[fasttense]

1. Welcome once again, to another, Republicon Great Depression.

The first one was just a short preview. The coming attraction is the major event.

[Xenotime]

19. * has officially runined this country. It wouldn't suprise me if we were invaded.

I would almost welcome a different regime

[tavalon]

25. No need

The Chinese own us already. No shots necessary.

[ixion]

2. worst yearly slump since 1937

is it a depression yet?

[Cirque du So-What]

3. Year's not over yet

The economy was seeing faint glimmers of hope by 1937. I don't know how much worse it would have to get in order to approach 1932 figures...and quite honestly, I don't WANT to know!

[Purveyor]

8. I still stand by my DJIA prediction of 7500 before Bush leaves office.

I was mildly ridiculed when I made that prediction back in January of this year.

[Roland99]

10. I've been calling for breaking under 9000 for almost 4 years

And I think now below 8000 is not unfathomable.

[ozone_man]

16. Not unfathomable at all.

I'm sure we'll go way below 8,000, probably even 4,000. The when is not so certain. I think with all of the bail outs, it will take a while longer than in 1929-1932. Instead of three years, it might take six years to get to the bottom. I think we're just at the beginning as in 1929/1930 stock chart. Each counter trend rally will look like recovery is on it's way, until it's found out that it's not.

That first retracement was 50%!

[CountAllVotes]

15. I'm thinking around 5,500

this is where it was when the tech boom started and things were picking up quite a bit c. 1995 or so.

[Xenotime]

20. Ok. I'll take the long odds...It's going under 1000

I just don't think there is anything left to this "Great Nation"

[trthnd4jstc]

4. We Can Help Each Other Through A Democratic Socialist System.

It is obvious that the Capitalism that the Majority have been supporting is a failure. I suggest Democratic Socialism. End The Tyranny Of The Rich. We can have governmental work programs. We can have a new type of currency based on Labor, instead of credit: Time Money:http://www.siue.edu/~rblain/index.htm

This is a good time to begin a life without Military Interventionism, the Military Industrial Complex, and to start living more in alignment with decency, kindness, and a concern for the majority, and the future, than this world.

Let us do better.

[MsLeopard]

7. OMG if only we would do that

Democratic Socialism would greatly benefit humanity, but the more I learn about elite groups who control world finance, the more I believe they are just too entrenched to ever let something like that happen. Power and greed rules the day among the big players.... I hope I'm wrong, and that the coming crash/depression, whatever it's going to be, ushers in an era such as you describe, but I've become most cynical in the last 7+ years and have trouble thinking it could be.

Yet, I agree - let us do better.

[trthnd4jstc]

9. I am not here yet, but my thought is find people with whom you can trust, and form your own

collective, or cooperative. We may not create democratic socialism for the many, but maybe we can create it for ourselves. Many people, at this time, do not know what a world of fair trade can look like, but a few of us practice this daily.

Good Luck!

[Xenotime]

21. Sounds great. Would Obama support it?

[trthnd4jstc]

24. I do not think so. I have tried a couple of times to introduce the idea of Time Money, and

Democratic Socialism, and I have not been received well once, and ignored the other time.

[Zhade]

23. You've got MY vote!

NT!

[tavalon]

26. That's fabulous

We just implemented economic socialism in our family. I've been a participant in a number of economic family systems in my two decades as a practicing polyamorist and the eight years of monogamy before that and I've never liked a system better. Mind you, I think I'll need to see in a year, 5 years and so on if I still like it but I like the cooperative nature it's brought out in each of us.

[trthnd4jstc]

27. Thanks for the Reply

From what you wrote, I can see that the theoretical ideas of Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, my friend's idea of Time Money, Bob Blain, and my own ideas about Democratic Socialism have a chance. We may never have a country or a state that makes exchange of Labor a method of interactive survival, but we do have elements of this in Santa Cruz, California, Ithica, New York, and probably several thousands of other locations throughout our nation.

Peace!

[Tutonic]

5. When you review the market indicators, it appears that it is still

coming up to the edge. If you own stock, you might want to sell at this time. I think it gets worse next week.

[redqueen]

6. I expect McCain to focus like a laser

on Ayers & Wright.

[Orrex]

12. Happily, I'm sure that Obama expects this, too

So we, in turn, can expect a very smart response to these bullshit, non-issue accusations.

Of course, the McPalin ticket has nothing left but bullshit, non-issue accusations, so why not? Hell, that's all they ever had in the first place!

[Orrex]

11. I suspect (hope) that that should be "10,000"

Still, I think that this just goes to show you that deregulation is the solution to all economic problems.

[Psyop Samurai]

13. That was my first reaction too... then I saw they were quoting the S&P 500...

...not the Dow (which IS below 10,000).

[Roland99]

14. That is correct.

[Orrex]

18. Thank you both for the clarification!

And thank you for clarifying without snark, I might add!

[AllyCat]

17. Good thing we handed them another $700B of our hard-earned cash, eh?

Crooks and liars. Crooks and liars. Crooks and liars.

[Zhade]

22. Gee, so those of us who opposed the bailout were right.

All it will do - if it even does that - is prolong the inevitable at the cost of our future.

You'd think people would start listening to us...