Chinese Stimulus Lifts Dow

(NEWSER) - The Dow tumbled 175 points at the open today, following even bigger selloffs in overseas markets, the Wall Street Journal reports. The S&P and Nasdaq each fell 2.2%. Those drops followed a whopping 5.8% dive on China’s Shanghai Composite Index, a 3.1% drop for Japan’s Nikkei, and 2% falls for the UK’s FTSE and Germany’s DAX. Freefalling commodity prices drove the negativity, with multiple Chinese metal companies taking the maximum 10% hits. More»

Dow returns to 11K-plus territory

(NEWSER) - As AIG's future became somewhat clearer, the wildly fluctuating markets settled into positive territory at the end of today's session. Rumors that the Fed will bail out the mega-insurer helped nearly erase a 74% decline, Bloomberg reports. The Dow closed up 141.51 at 11,059.02, the Nasdaq gained 22.45 to 2,202.36, and the S&P 500 rose 20.86 to 1,213.56. More»

AIG, Goldman pace decline

(NEWSER) - Stocks declined at the opening bell today, sending the S&P 500 into its worst two-day slump since 2002, Bloomberg reports. Investors reacted to an overnight credit downgrade for liquidity-challenged AIG and a weak Goldman Sachs earnings report. Overnight lending rates took a record jump last night, as markets fell around the world. More»

S&P slips below threshold at this morning's open

(NEWSER) - Wall Street is getting nervous, and not because of protesters. Stocks have been plummeting hard, and are now just inches above the threshold for what traders consider a bear market. The Dow dove 240 points on Friday and another 258 yesterday, leaving it perilously close to the bear market threshold of 10,248, the Wall Street Journal reports. The S&P slid below the threshold at this morning's open. More»

S&P 500, Nasdaq follow suit

(NEWSER) - No major relief for the markets today, at least not so far: The Dow was down about 100 points at open, resting below 10,900, according to MarketWatch . The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were also down, 7 points and 5 points, respectively. And the news from abroad isn't any cheerier ... More»