The Dow went below 8,000 for 2 days. The 8k mark is supposed to be a psychological benchmark. From what I wunderstan, this means if the DOW stays under 8k, it will start creeping down toward 7k.

This is bad because the stock market is basically money being saved in the expectation a company or a group of companies will do well. So, the DOW and the stockmarket are important to keep an eye on wether or not you have money in it. It tells you what Americans who have money think.

There is also an unending stream of bad reports about the economy coming in. This both feeds into the slipping DOW and makes people tighten their spending more. This action feeds back into the reports and the DOW. Around and around we go, where we stop nobody knows...