The stock market spent Wednesday tormenting investors, knocking the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 519.83 points and slamming media stocks.
After a disastrous Monday, in which the Dow tumbled more than 630 points, the market rebounded Tuesday, climbing 429.62 points. Wedesday’s collapse obliterated those gains.
CBS, up nearly 15 percent Tuesday, was down 5.43 percent Wednesday.
Time Warner, up 2 percent Tuesday, was down 1.41 percent Wednesday.
Comcast, up 1.35 percent Tuesday, was down 4.47 percent Wednesday.
The numbers were dismal across the board: Disney was down 3.16 points, or 9.11 percent, Sony was down 1.29 points, or 5.71 percent. News Corp. was down .70 points, or 4.69 percent.
The price of gold increased to $1,791.54 — up $51.54, proving a weakening dollar.
The Nasdaq closed down 101.47 points, or 4.09 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 was down 51.77 points, or 4.42 percent. The FTSE 100 was down 157.76 points, or 3.85 percent.
One bright spot: the Nikkei was up 94.26 points, or 1.05 percent.
The reason?
Take your pick. Fear of a double-dip recession is mounting, and markets were jittery because of the Euro zone debt crisis and because of fears that France will lose its AAA credit rating.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's government said it would take action to cut France's deficits, but propping up a world economy ruled, apparently, by fear is extraordinarily difficult.
