Bear Stearns sinks stocks

Bear Stearns (BSC), that's about all the markets were focused on today. Almost $6B in their market value was wiped out in a couple of mins, that's some kind of haircut! It looks like they sort of had a run on the bank requiring the FED to step in & help. At midday, BSC sent out feelers looking for buyers. As bad as this mess is, the bigger problem is there could be more huge financial houses in trouble. Credit crisis & credit crunch are now popular terms used in everywhere.

By the end of the day, Dow slipped below 12K, down 195. Believe it or not, this was an up week for the Dow thanks to the 400 point day. Decliners led advancers 5-1 & NAZ was down 51. Banks, REITs, MLPs, junk bonds etc. led the way down. Everybody is keeping their eyes on S&P 500. The intra-day low in Jan was 1270 & they're just 18 points above that. Those following technical indicators worry that falling below that support line could signal more ugly days ahead. Gold is 1000, oil is 110 & the Treasury bond rose reducing it's yield to 3.42%. VIX (volatility measure) closed at 31.16, up 3.87, an extremely high level indicating there will be very big bumps in the road.