Rising and Falling: A Dow Jones Story

NEW YORK—Stocks pulled back sharply Wednesday, erasing most of the previous session's big gains as investors grew concerned about high commodities prices and the possibility that banks remain vulnerable to further problems from soured debt. The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 300 points after rising 420 on Tuesday.

Some retrenchment was to be expected after the previous day's huge advance. But the decline also reflects investors' continuing uneasiness about the world's financial system and the U.S. economy.

Talk swirled about whether further write-downs are in the offing after Merrill Lynch & Co. filed a lawsuit against a company involved in a debt transaction with the company, according to several reports. Merrill was among the steepest decliners of the financial stocks.

Hey look: The Dow Jones looks just like a y=sin(x) graph!

Stocks Fall

NEW YORK—Stocks fell sharply Friday after a series of depressing economic and earnings reports and high oil prices stoked concerns about the health of economy. The major stock indexes fell more than 2 percent, with the Dow Jones industrials at times giving up more than 300 points.

Investors were unnerved by disappointing quarterly results from American International Group Inc. and Dell Inc. And an index of regional business activity that Wall Street regards as a precursor to a broader report registered its weakest reading in more than six years.

Adding to Wall Street's list of worries, oil prices continued to stir concern about inflation after topping $103 per barrel overnight for the first time.

Sorry, stock owners.

Some stock market news...

It went from bad to worse for Merrill Lynch on Wednesday when the brokerage announced it wrote down the value of its holdings nearly twice as much as it previously warned.

Shares of Merrill Lynch fell $4.51, or 6.7%, to $62.61, after the brokerage said it swung to a third-quarter loss of $2.3 billion, or $2.82 per share, from $3.0 billion, or $3.50 per share, a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a loss of 45 cents per share.

Merrill was dragged to a loss by bigger-than-expected write-downs on the values of its subprime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations, a type of asset-backed security.

Sell! Sell! Sell!

Wall Street plunges

Wall Street plunged in early trading Thursday, yanking the Dow Jones industrials down more than 180 points after a French bank said it was freezing three securities funds that struggled to find liquidity in the U.S. subprime mortgage market.

The announcement by BNP Paribas raised the specter of a widening impact of U.S. credit market problems.

Whaddya mean the Dow's down? Buy! Buy! Buy!

Coles down, Wesfarmers up.

Shares in Australia's Coles Group Ltd. fell nearly 4 percent on Tuesday after private equity group Kohlberg Kravis Roberts pulled out of a consortium planning to bid for the retailer.

Buy! Buy! Buy! Sell! Sell! Sell! What you mean Coles is down? Wesfarmers's up? Sell! Sell! Sell!