Checked my 401K at Fidelity today for the first time in two weeks or so:
Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 01/18/2008 is -9.1%
And those prices were calculated at close-of-market on Friday. Thank goodness we have a long weekend for the markets to rest, so that they can be ready for a big day on Tuesday! Europe, Asia, and Brasil are open for trading today, and they’ll get in another day of trading during Monday night in the US, so we’re going to have some catching up to do here:
LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks nosedived and demand for safe-haven bonds and currencies soared on Monday as fears gripped investors that a deteriorating U.S. economy would drag others down with it.
How bad is it?
Some of the European indices are down almost 7% after Monday. If they fall again on Tuesday, it seems trite to suggest that the Dow will have a really bad day. Just as a reminder for all of you viewers at home, the NYSE circuit breakers for 1Q 2008 are listed here (and those thresholds apply to the NASDAQ as well). The first magic number is 1350; If the market opens with a 1350-point drop in the Dow, trading will halt for one hour, which should give everyone enough time to get thoroughly panicked and adjust their sell orders to make sure that the market closes for the day before all of us lazy bums here on the west coast have had our first cups of coffee.
