Market Tumble

At least the Dow Jones has company in its current pit: After the Dow dropped below 7000 and hit a 12-year low yesterday, Asian markets also sunk. The Hang Seng Index lost 2.8 percent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1 percent, and the HSBC share price fell almost 20 percent after it announced it would raise more capital. The sell-offs were spurred, in part, by AIG’s announcement of a $61.2 billion fourth-quarter loss—the worst corporate quarter of all time.