Wall Street Gives a Sigh of Relief

After dipping below 8,000 for the first time in five years, the Dow see-sawed to a 8,451.19 close, a 128 point drop, to end one of its most turbulent weeks in history. Today's gyrations began with an early drop of more than 600 points following a panicked plunge in the international markets. Particularly hard hit today were Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. As The Wall Street Journal points out, "The stock market has so far avoided a one day plunge of 10 percent, the traditional definition of a crash. But even in the two instances when such a single-day drop did happen, in 1929 and 1987, the full week bloodletting was not as bad" as this week has been. Not very reassuring, is it?