From DAILYFINANCE.COM:
(3:00 PM) It was a painful flashback to the darkest days of 2008: Stocks plunged and the Dow Jones Industrial skidded by hundreds of points as traders succumbed to fears that Greece’s debt problems would halt the global economic recovery.
The Dow lost almost 1,000 points before recovering to a loss of 505 as traders watched protests in the streets of Athens on TV. Protesters raged against austerity measures passed by the Greek parliament. But traders were not comforted by the fact that Greece seemed to be working towards a resolution of its debt problems. Instead, they focused on the possibility that other European countries would also run into trouble, and that the damage to their economies could spread to the U.S.
Computer trading intensified the losses as programs designed to sell stocks at a specified level kicked in. Traders use those programs to try to limit their losses when the market is falling. And the selling only led to more selling as prices fell…
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