Market takes a beating

Most everything went down today - in some cases by a lot. The Dow fell almost 160 points while the S&P was down 19, or 1.36 percent. The percentage is significant because, as reported by the WSJ's David Gaffen, it's the first time in 95 trading days that the S&P fell more than 1 percent. Much of the attention focused on Wal-Mart reporting terrible sales numbers for November, but other culprits were far and wide. Good excuse for profit taking after several stunning weeks. Here's the NYT story. Among local issues that fell more than 3 percent (bear in mind that some of these stocks are always volatile):

Activision -3.7%
Big 5 Sporting Goods -3.9%
Countrywide -3.1%
California Pizza Kitchen -3.2%
DreamWorks -3.4%
Guess -4%
Gemstar -3.7%
Hilton -5%
Herbalife -3.1%
J2Global -3.1%
Napster -4.9%
Indymac -3.4%
99 Cents Only -4.2%
Skechers -4%
Stamps.com -4.2%
THQ -3%
On Assignment -3.4%
Cathay General Bancorp -3.6%
Cherokee -3.1%