Dow closes down 634 points

An even uglier day than last Thursday - panic mode definitely settled in over the markets, more so than many folks had been expecting. It's the first time since last November that the Dow finished below 11,000. The few optimists out there point to certain characteristics of the session - strong volume and lots of volatility - that could suggest stocks are close to bottoming out. But there's so much discouraging news - Washington gridlock, European debt, sluggish U.S. growth - that it's hard to see any immediate turnaround. Somebody just described this as a slow-motion crash, and that sounds about right. More to come...

*It's a day for scary stats. From the WSJ:

--Dow is off 15.6 percent from its 2011 closing high.
--Nasdaq is down almost 18 percent
--S&P has lost 16.8 percent in just 11 days.
--Today is the worst day for the Dow since December 1, 2008.
--The VIX, or fear index, ended the day up 46 percent. It's at the highest level since January 2009.