Economy Points Down, Takes Market With It
With summer around the bend, investors are fretting about the return of something much more unpleasant: the bear market.</br></br>Suddenly, there are reasons for worry that stocks could be entering a difficulty period, including suddenly poor economic data, troubling signs from housing and a rush of companies selling shares.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.3% last week, its fifth down week in a row. The Dow is now down 5.2% from its post-crash high, set in May. Other stock indexes also are suffering. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.3% and is now down 46% from its high. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was also off 2.3% for the week.</br></br>Highlighting the ugly week: The Dow tumbled nearly 280 points on Wednesday, its worst single day since August 2010, on fears that the U.S. economy is in the midst of a new slide -- one that may be hard to halt because the government and Federal Reserve already have done so much to try to juice the economy.</br></br>Despite the gloom and doom, it's important to remember the market is still sitting on respectable gains in 2011. So far this year, the Dow is up 5%, the Nasdaq has gained 3%, while the S&P 500 is up 3.4%.