What happened today to send the markets spiraling downwards? Unlike the vast majority of financial pages, I'm going to go out on a limb and say I don't know. There wasn't any particularly awful piece of news on Friday or today, except maybe Capital One's announcement that a shocking 9.4% of its credit card business needs charge-off. (Shocking . . . but surprising? Not exactly).
Maybe the lesson is that the markets need a steady stream of good news to keep from sliding backwards. Or maybe everyone was just crabby and hungover. I'm wary of too many generalizations from one bearish day.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/06/a-bearish-day/19432/
