Not only that, but the market actually picked up 56 points on the day - not bad considering that the Dow fell under 12,000 for the first time since November. Some of the technical analysts have been warning that finishing below 12,000 would be a bad sign, so 12,133 should be a cause for celebration. But it's really rocky out there, evidenced by local stocks that were all over the map. Just after the close, for example:

•Amgen +0.50%
•Cheesecake Factory +2.36%
•DreamWorks -0.39%
•Disney +0.33%
•Countrywide +2.87%
•KB Home +3.97%
•99 Cents Only Stores -6.97%

Yes, ongoing nervousness about the subprime mess and how it might impact real estate in general no doubt contributed to the up-and-down session, but there's another factor to keep in mind - Friday's expiration of contracts for stock-index futures, stock-index options, stock options and single-stock futures, otherwise known as "quadruple witching." That makes for lots and lots of volatility - and heck, it's only Wednesday. By the way, not all techies think 12,000 is that big a deal - among them, Katie Townshend, chief market technician at MKM Partners, who told CNBC that "round numbers do hold significance, but in this case I don't believe so." She's short-term bearish, long-term bullish.