Wall Street has worst Thanksgiving week ever

Well, at least going back to when the markets first closed for Thanksgiving in 1942. Today's loss was small - only 25 points on the Dow - but for the week the index lost 564 points, or 4.8 percent, to 11,231. Much of the worry this week was over Europe, and the growing fear that the European monetary system might be on the verge of falling part - what could have very bad consequences all over the globe. From the NYT:

On Friday, Standard & Poor's downgraded Belgium's credit standing to AA from AA+, saying it might not be able to cut its towering debt load any time soon. Ratings agencies this week cautioned that France could lose its AAA rating if the crisis grew. On Thursday, agencies lowered the ratings of Portugal and Hungary to junk. While European leaders still say there is no need to draw up a Plan B, some of the world's biggest banks, and their supervisors, are doing just that. "We cannot be, and are not, complacent on this front," Andrew Bailey, a regulator at Britain's Financial Services Authority, said this week. "We must not ignore the prospect of a disorderly departure of some countries from the euro zone," he said.