Wall Street dropped for a sixth consecutive day during trading Wednesday. The NASDAQ had the worst day, dropping 0.82 percent (18.89 points), followed closely by a 0.51 percent (5.75 points) fall on the S&P 500. The Dow Jones also fell on the day (0.03 percent, 66.58 points), but to a lesser extent.
According to CNNMoney.com, stocks were set to drop again in the morning, continuing a two week long fall that has erased more than a month of market increases. The Dow Jones opened with triple digit selloffs on Thursday morning. After an hour and a half the Dow was down 300 points. If the markets were to close now they would have essentially erased all gains from 2010.
According to Bloomberg News, much of the downward thrust on Wall Street, and around the world, is related to a continued drop by the euro on international currency exchanges and sovereign debt concerns in Europe.
After having survived 2008 and 2009 most Americans are unfazed by the huge market plunge of the past two weeks. However, when markets were reacting this violently in May 2008 Americans were crippled by the fear of a catastrophic collapse.
The fear of such a collapse has definitely taken hold of Wall Street, but mainstream America has not taken notice. In spite of a $1 trillion aid package from European governments to bail out Greece and other European economies, markets continue to falter.
Perhaps the primary factor in this market slide has been the attempt, half-hearted as it may be, from Germany and the United States to stabilize their financial industries. Investors have gotten used to thriving in a deregulated market that allows them to prey on one another at will. When even a marginal attempt is made to rein in these sorts of practices, investors react with violent downward corrections.
In other news, according to Bloomberg, initial jobless claims in the U.S. jumped unexpectedly by 25,000 for the week ended May 15. The weekly total was 471,000.