weekened coming up in a few. roller coaster continues w after gaining back monday s losses on tuesday. dow closed down 520 points yesterday. so, what is to blame and what can we expect today? lauren demarco is here with more. learn tough questions to answer. they are, the sell off continued in asia stocks tumbling when they opened overnight some markets rebounded and closed mixed as for the dow this morning futures show it opening down again a lot of 401 k holders are holding their breath hoping to day s roller coaster ride will be less like the scream machine and more like a stroll along the fair way. another big sell off on wall street dow plunging more than 500 points, down 4.6% for the day. in addition to concerns about the u.s. economy selling was intensified by worries about debt problems in europe investors feel italy and spain could be the next countries unable to pay their debt. and there are concerns france could lose its triple-a credit rating. we conti
territory. and now the focus turns to the federal reserve. this afternoon, the fed will meet to discuss what it can do, if anything, to help boost the economy. investors are hoping for some good news after the worst day on wall street in two years. maria bartiromo reports. reporter: investors reacted to the first ever downgrade of u.s. credit, fast and furious, on what became the worst day on wall street in two years. now tuesday s fed meeting is critical, as pressure mounts for ben bernanke and his fellow policy makers to consider fresh stimulus for the economy or face the threat of another recession. there s concern that the s&p downgrade may do something to consumer confidence and thereby ease us a little closer to the infamous double dip that everybody s worried about. midday monday, the president tried to inject confidence into the market. our problems are imminently solvable. and we know what we have to do to solve them. reporter: but as the president was ta
east, has now roiled the markets. shannon hobbs with cnbc joins us now with that network headquarters in new jersey with more on all of this. simon, thank you for joining us. first of all, as the president was talking today, the stock market continued tumbling, if not immediately then, but immediately after. what s up with that? well, i mean, we ve just got waves and waves of selling that keep coming over the market. it s happening internationally and basically feeding as people suffer losses, they re forced to sell, jim. and let s not forget that we ve now had 12 bad trading sessions and the dow has fallen 15%. so this is a serious, serious move. we ve not fallen in one day like this for two years. bad stuff, i m afraid, if you live in the market. simon, we re told that traders were reacting to the downgrading of fannie mae and freddie mac. but fannie mae and freddie mac are owned by the government, so why should they be surprised at that? because there s so much con
the debt. steve handelsman on capitol hill now with more on this. reporter: thanks. good evening. amid all of today s terrible news, there was a little bit of paucity, if you will from the head of standard & poor s who listened to what president obama said, and said that that help, he was impressed that the president thought the matter was urgent. and when you re the head of s&p, people care what you think. the president had been looking on the bright side. he said the downgrade on friday, which he said he still disputes, plus, by extension, today s terrible down day on the markets, could help break the deadlock up here on capitol hill. in his first reaction since standard & poor s downgraded u.s. bonds late friday, president obama rejected the aa-plus rating. no matter what some agency may say, we ve always been and always will be a aaa country. reporter: but u.s. stock markets dropped sickeningly. the dow losing 5.55%. the s&p 500, 6.66%. nasdaq off 6.9%. the biggest