Dow Plummets 266, Back Under 12K

Just imagine if they hadn't gotten a deal at the last minute: The stock market had a brutal day, despite today's final passage of the bill to avert a default, reports MarketWatch. The Dow fell 266 to 11,867 (2.2%); Nasdaq fell 75 to 2,669 (2.8%), and the S&5 500 fell 33 to 1,254 (2.6%). Gloomy data on consumer spending—Americans as a whole cut back in June for the first time in nearly two years—contributed to the malaise.

“This debate has left a cloud of uncertainty over the market in terms of what it means," says an analyst at MF Global. "The good news is we’re not going to default, the bad news is we don’t know what is coming out of Washington. There’s a loss of confidence and a rethinking of the profit outlook going out a few years." (More stock market stories.)