Tuesday's markets: Blue chips fall 79.01, leaving traders uneasy
In one of the stock market's more abrupt declines in recent months, a late-day, 30-minute selling frenzy sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a loss of 79.01 points, or 1.21%.</br></br>The decline, to a finish of 6442.69, was the seventh-biggest for the Dow industrials this year -- and the sharpest since July 15, when the index dropped 161.05.</br></br>Blue-chip stocks bore the brunt of the selling, but by the time the dust settled, the broader Standard & Poor's 500-stock index had fallen 8.28 points, or 1.09%.</br></br>While the percentage move alone wasn't alarming by historic proportions, the sudden shift in the market's direction and sentiment after weeks of bullishness and continued records left uneasy traders bracing for today. They noted that futures contracts on the S&P 500 index continued to fall in after-hours electronic trading.</br></br>"This is certainly setting up as the first real correction we've seen since" the market's recovery from its summer doldrums, said Jon Olesky, managing director and head of block trading at Morgan Stanley. He further noted that "this does not have the feel of a one-day event."