Wednesday morning headlines

Markets still down: The Dow was off more than 200 points in early trading, then came back quite a bit and is now down about 175 points. Bank stocks appear to be holding up the ship, though there's still not much incentive to buy - despite the Fed lowering interest rates and Washington prepping some sort of stimulus plan. (FT)

Bearish signals: More and more market watchers are spotting the signs of a serious downturn in stocks - one that might last a while (bear markets usually mean a 20 percent or more drop in prices, and some of the indexes are already there). Paul Desmond, president of market-research firm Lowry's Reports, tells the WSJ that it starts with the most troubled stocks taking a dive (home builders and financial stocks in this case) and then others gradually get hit, including small stocks, retailers and technology stocks. Finally even stocks of strong companies are affected.

As a bear market develops, Mr. Desmond says, trading volume and price movement get heavier and heavier for stocks that are declining, and lighter and lighter on the buying side, as more investors look for a way out. When the selling reaches a climax, the bear market is nearing an end, but Mr. Desmond says he doesn't see any sign of a climax yet. "We feel we have been in a bear market since July. Everything that we have seen since then has just been a progression, almost like a disease that you are monitoring and the disease is spreading," he says. "We are still a long way from a major bottom." He is watching for a sign of panic selling, but says it hasn't gotten to that point yet. "Everything we are seeing looks like a typical bear market," he says.

Fixing L.A.'s economy: A group of local bizfolks are releasing a study today that makes a bunch of recommendations to attract and retain business, such as expanding LAX and the ports, creating tax-incentive zones for business, and making the permitting process more accessible. (Sure they didn’t pull these from some earlier report?) The bizfolks also urge the city to make better use of land it owns in South Los Angeles to develop affordable housing. Mayor Antonio promises to review the recommendations. (Daily News)

Selling at Sundance: Focus is paying $10 million for of the much-discussed "Hamlet 2," the story of a failed actor turned pathetic high school drama teacher who stages a musical sequel to "Hamlet," with a "sexy Jesus" in a starring role. "Henry Poole Is Here," described by the NYT as a "lighthearted tale of a terminally ill man (Luke Wilson), his troubled neighbors and a stain on his stucco wall that might resemble the face of Jesus," was sold to Overture Films for $3.5 million.

The questions of to buy or not to buy surrounding other films at this year’s festival, meanwhile, seemed to be resolving. At around 5 a.m. on Tuesday, Fox Searchlight agreed to pay several million dollars for “Choke,” Clark Gregg’s adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel, starring Sam Rockwell as a sex-addicted con man (he forces himself to choke in fancy restaurants); Anjelica Huston as his deranged, hospitalized mother; and Kelly Macdonald as her doctor. The United Talent Agency represented the film, which also has religious overtones: Ms. Huston’s character believes her fatherless son is the Second Coming.

Nominees struggle at box office: You mean "There Will be Blood" isn't packing the multiplexes? It's another year of Oscar nominations that, with the exception of the quirky and likeable "Juno," have limited mainstream appeal. Four of the five nominated pictures have failed to crack the $50 million mark in domestic ticket sales. Big-budget releases like "American Gangster" turned out to be also-rans in the Oscar race. (WSJ)

MPAA goofs on piracy: Remember the claims by the Motion Picture Association of America that college students were responsible for much of the movie industry’s domestic losses due to illegal downloading - 44 percent to be exact. Well, the movie people rechecked their numbers and discovered a slight discrepancy. The number is 15 percent (a good lesson for folks paying too much attention to the numbers on CNBC today). The MPAA said "human error" was behind the goof. Kenneth C. Green, director of The Campus Computing Project, says the movie people owe the kids an apology. (The Lede)

Dangers of tuna sushi: Lab tests found lots of mercury in sushi from NY stores and restaurants - so much of it that a regular diet of six pieces a week would exceed the EPA's acceptable levels. “No one should eat a meal of tuna with mercury levels like those found in the restaurant samples more than about once every three weeks," Dr. Michael Gochfeld, professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, told the NYT. He analyzed the samples for the paper.

Although the samples were gathered in New York City, experts believe similar results would be observed elsewhere. “Mercury levels in bluefin are likely to be very high regardless of location,” said Tim Fitzgerald, a marine scientist for Environmental Defense, an advocacy group that works to protect the environment and improve human health. Most of the restaurants in the survey said the tuna The Times had sampled was bluefin. Tuna samples from the Manhattan restaurants Nobu Next Door, Sushi Seki, Sushi of Gari and Blue Ribbon Sushi and the food store Gourmet Garage all had mercury above one part per million, the “action level” at which the F.D.A. can take food off the market. (The F.D.A. has rarely, if ever, taken any tuna off the market.)

Tiger in the tank: When the world's most famous golfer finished a tournament last year in the top 5, TV ratings were 171 percent higher than the tournaments in which he did not play or wasn't in contention. Over the years, there have been only a handful of athletes who can move the needle so drastically. Woods will play this week at the Buick Invitational in La Jolla. (LAT)