The DOW falls below 9000 for the first time in 5 years! Where to next … that is a trillion dollar question on everyone mind I’m sure! Frankly we’re seeing the capitalist towers falling down, not slowly rotting away unchecked like over the last decade. Funny that, as a capitalist system cannot work without CAPITALs, and this is the dilema Wall Street found itself in.

• Dow Jones 8579 -679 -7.33%
• S&P 500 910 -75 -7.62%
• NASDAQ 1645 -95 -5.47%

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 679 points, for its the worst seven-session performance since the one that ended Oct. 26, 1987.

For Thursday’s session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 678.91 points (7.33%) to 8,579.19, its lowest close in more than five years and comparable to the 777-point decline of Sept. 29, the biggest point-decline of its history.

Trade was volatile again, with the Dow up more than 150 points at one stage.The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 75.02 points (7.62%) to 909.92. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow are off by more than 20% for October, comparable to the stock-market declines of October 1929 and October 1987.

The Nasdaq Composite shed 95.21 points (5.47%) to 1,645.12.

Fear indicators, such as the Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index, hit all-time highs. The VIX is known as the market’s “fear gauge” because traders pay up for protection when nerves are jangled.

These falls came on the one-year anniversary of the highs of the Dow and the S&P 500. The Dow has lost 5,585 points, or 39.4%, since closing at 14,198 on Oct. 9, 2007. The S&P 500, meanwhile, is off 655 points, or 41.9%, since recording its high of 1,565.15.

In so far, the market had surpassed all previous falls bar the 1929 stock market crash.

Back then the DOW total lost was 77.9% which started on Oct 24th 1929 and ended on Aug 12th 1932. That was almost 3 years of pains and America had to endure a decade of depression. How will America, and in fact the world fair this time around? If we take 1929 crash as a point of reference then there are still be more of the same to come just yet! Braise yourself for the ride! We are not even half way through October yet.

It sure is measuring up to the past crashes in pass century and given all the massive negative press and reporting that the sky is about to fall. This crash will go down in history as hugely monstreous!

Not even a coordinated barrage of rate cuts could prevent the stock market crash of October 2008 measuring up to those of October 1987 and 1929.
US stocks slid late in the session Wednesday, weighed down by continued tightness in credit markets, the need for capital at financial firms like Bank of America and a disappointing kickoff to the earnings season from Alcoa.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 189.01 points (2%) to 9,258.10, its sixth straight decline and its lowest close since Aug. 11, 2003, more than five years ago.
For the week so far, the Dow is down 10%, on top of a 7.3% loss last week. By comparison, in the worst week of the 1929 crash, the week ended Oct. 19 that year, the Dow took a loss of 8.2%; the blue-chip index lost 13% on the week that started with Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987. So far in October, the Dow is off 15%, compared with a loss of 20% in October 1929 and a loss of 23% in October 1987.
The broad Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 11.29 (1.13%) to 984.94, its lowest finish since Aug. 13, 2003. As of Tuesday, the S&P 500 had wiped out about $1.48tr in wealth during October, according to S&P.The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 14.55 (0.83%) to 1,740.33, also its lowest since August 2003.

Don’t believe in everything you read in the press. This perhaps could turn out to be an opportunity of a life time for many people (and not the mass). Take a look at all this from a different perspective. A “blessing in disguise” is the phrase I’d be inspired to in time of extreme crisis. If anything, at least we still have time on our side. Well, most of us anyway, and certainly I.