Dow drops below 8000

For a few minutes anyway. It's now back over the 8000 mark, barely. From David Gaffen at MarketBeat:

Since its all-time closing high of 14164.53 on October 9, 2007, the index is off by more than 41%, and several components have fallen into the single digits, the latest being Alcoa, which was at $9.86 a share recently. A handful of the names in the 30-stock average are one way or another, on the public dole, having received federal assistance through the Treasury’s $700 billion program. “It should be called the DJBR — the Dow Jones Bailout Recipient index,” says Barry Ritholtz, Fusion IQ’s CEO and director of equity research.

Not to belabor the obvious, but the financial world is flying blind.