Everyone was expecting a bad day today and they were right. The Dow plunged 500 points on the news that Lehman Brothers would be near bankruptcy and on the news that Bank of America would be acquiring Merrill Lynch. There are also major concerns about insurer AIG and WaMu. AIG's shares lost over 50% on the day. Hurricane Ike slamming the southeast Texas coast and forcing the shutting of several oil refineries may also have helped exacerbate the downward spiral in the stock market today.
Fox Business called it an epic selloff. Bloomberg says it is the biggest drop since 9/11. Timesays the drop was the sixth largest ever for the Dow.
The stock market has suffered one of its worst days in years as investors reacted to a stunning reshaping of the landscape of Wall Street that took out two storied names: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co.
The Dow Jones industrials are down more than 504 points, their sixth-largest point drop ever and their worst showing since they lost 508 in the October 1987 crash.
Investors were shaken by Lehman's bankruptcy filing and what was essentially a forced sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America for $50 billion in stock.
The DOW was not the only index in negative territory.
Dow: -504.48 (-4.42%)
Nasdaq: -81.36 (-3.60%)
S&P: -59.01 (-4.71%)
Politically, Barack Obama was quick to blame the financial woes on Bush policies that he says John McCain also supports. President Bush says the economy will be able to handle the financial turmoil. Some positive news came at the end of the day when New York Governor David Paterson announced that AIG would be allowed to use $20 billion of assets held by its subsidiaries.
Everyone was expecting a bad day today and they were right. The 
