Stocks take beating

The Dow fell 172 points, which brings the index below 12,000 for the first time since March and marks the sixth straight week of market declines. From WSJ:

"At the moment there doesn't seem to be any place to hide," said Ted Weisberg, president of Seaport Securities. "Best-case scenario, [traders] don't know what to do. Worst case, they're simply throwing in the towel because they're frustrated. Nothing seems to work."

Of course it's worth pointing out that a significant pullback has been long overdue - perhaps a full-blown correction, which would be a 10 percent drop from recent highs. (At this point, the Dow is down 6.5 percent.) Also worth remembering is that the economy has been slowing down - not to the degree that some would claim, but enough to be noticed, even on Wall Street.