Watching the Global Meltdown of Wall Street
Another Gloomy Day on Wall St. Countrywide Falls 28 Percent After Bankruptcy Buzz
By Neil Irwin and Carrie Johnson Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, January 9, 2008; D01
Shares of Countrywide Financial, the nation's largest mortgage lender, plummeted yesterday on rumors, which the company denied, that it was contemplating a bankruptcy filing. The drop came on yet another bad day for the stock market, which has been off to a terrible start for 2008.
The Dow Jones industrial average was off 238 points for the day, a 1.9 percent drop; the tech-heavy Nasdaq Stock Market was down 2.36 percent. The broad-based Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, which dropped 1.84 percent, has fallen four of the five trading days in 2008 and is down 5.4 percent. It is off more than 10 percent from its high in October, the definition of a market correction.
The New York Stock Exchange halted trading in Countrywide to stop panic selling, and the company issued a statement saying "there is no substance t…