Credit crunch sends Dow crashing...

Fear of a deepening credit crunch and low retail sales numbers made for a bad day on Dow Street today, the final straw for the market's latest drop was a French bank's announcement that it was freezing three funds that invested in U.S. subprime mortgages.:

The announcement by BNP Paribas raised the specter of a widening impact of U.S. credit market problems. The idea that anyone — institutions, investors, companies, individuals — can't get money when they need it unnerved a stock market that has suffered through weeks of volatility triggered by concerns about tight credit and bad subprime mortgages.