Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
With less than an hour of trading to go, the Dow is down around 190 points. There's certainly a lot to be concerned about: More talk of Greece defaulting (Prime Minister George Papandreou has offered to step down), new signs of inflation in the U.S., a disappointing report on manufacturing, and weak data on industrial production. And there are no strong earnings results to cushion the blow (earnings season is still a few weeks away). One bit of decent news: Oil is trading at around $95 a barrel, which could mean a further drop in gas prices. But crude is falling in large part because of lower expectations for the global economy. So even that's not great news.
*Update: Dow finishes the day down 178 points, wiping out all of yesterday's gains and then some.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.