Well, after spending a couple of weeks focusing on automaker-related financial news, it’s time again to look the broader market, and what occurred today doesn’t make for a pretty sight.  The Dow plunged 289.60 points, or 3.56 percent, putting it under 8000 once more.

The rest of the damage (seen in a broad view) is as follows: the Nasdaq went down by 64.86 points, or 3.88 percent of its value, and the S&P 500 lost 37.21 points, or a whopping 4.28 percent.

Banking concerns caused the fall.  Chuck Mikolajczak reports, “Dow component Bank of America shares plunged 20.5 percent to $8.42 despite reporting a rise in profits after it said that its credit quality deteriorated markedly.”

Also, “U.S. government officials have determined they can avoid asking Congress for more bank bailout funds by converting the existing loans to some U.S. banks into common stock, the New York Times reported.  Such a move would dilute stockholders’ stakes.”

So, as always, we’ll hold tight and see what happens.  But this seems to be an especially important moment because today’s events might put a stop to the overall market rise that we’ve seen recently.