Another Dow Jones Plunge
October 9th, 2008. Filed under: Finance & Fitness Fridays.Today saw Wall Street take another big hit. The Dow Jones was down around 200 points until the last hour of trading when it plunged for a total of 678.91 points. Today the market closed with the Dow at 678.91 points. A year ago today when the Dow was at it’s peak, it closed at 14,164.53.
The United States Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and other central banks moved Wednesday to jointly cut their benchmark interest rates by half a point, seeking to renew confidence in an increasingly panicked international financial community. Didn’t work. Check The New York Times to see today’s reactions of the foreign markets.
Meanwhile, countries and states are going bankrupt. Examples are Iceland and California. In Iceland, the government seized Kaupthing Bank, the country’s largest lender, effectively completing the nationalization of its banking system. And in California, Arnold wants in on the big bailout. You know, the one which hasn’t helped Wall Street.