**Scary day on Wall Street

At a little after 11, the Dow was down more than 200 points. As is often the case during really bad selloffs, there's no single explanation. Some analysts will point to a market plunge in China or Vice President Cheney being the apparent target of a Taliban bombing attack in Afghanistan or a worse-than-expected durable goods report. But many on Wall Street had become convinced that after an eight-month rally, the market was due for a correction - no matter what the news of the day happened to be. The big question, of course, is how big a pullback? Harry Clark, CEO of Clark Capital Management, tells CNNMoney.com that after a decline of 4 or 5 percent it will be done. Others believe the pushback could be closer to 10 percent.

**Update: With about an hour of trading still left, the Dow was down 500 points. That came after the index plunged 200 points almost instantly. Now it's recovering, off around 350 points (there's still more than a half hour left). That 200-point instant plunge could be one of the big stories of the day.

Updates throughout the afternoon.



More by Mark Lacter:
American-US Air settlement with DOJ includes small tweak at LAX
Socal housing market going nowhere fast
Amazon keeps pushing for faster L.A. delivery
Another rugged quarter for Tribune Co. papers
How does Stanford compete with the big boys?
Those awful infographics that promise to explain and only distort
Best to low-ball today's employment report
Further fallout from airport shootings
Crazy opening for Twitter*
Should Twitter be valued at $18 billion?
Recent stories:
Siri versus Hawaiian pidgin (video)
Letter from Down Under: Welcome to the Homogenocene
One last Florida photo
Signs of Saturday: No refund
'I Am Woman,' hear them roar

New at LA Observed
On the Media Page
Go to Media

On the Politics Page
Go to Politics
Arts and culture

Sign up for daily email from LA Observed

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


Advertisement
Mark Lacter
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.
 
Mark Lacter, business writer and editor was 59
The multi-talented Mark Lacter
LA Observed on Twitter and Facebook