Tech Wreck Getting Bloodier as Year Winds Down

Where's the holiday cheer? Where's the festivity?

Last night's warnings from Gateway(GTW Quote) and Altera(ALTR Quote) -- adding to the generally lousy tone of the market -- have sent the major indices south today.

Is this a one-day event, or can we expect this kind of market through the end of the year? Many of the stock market's brightest lights have predicted -- hopefully, it seems -- that every dip in the past few months represented a market bottom.

People were blaming stocks' weakness on many factors -- earnings preannouncements, earnings announcements, weakness in the euro, pre-election malaise, election uncertainty, tech's huge run-up in the past few years leading to wacky valuations and on and on.

Last night, we got a picture of how things would be today when tech stocks, in particular, fell apart in after-hours trading.

What's next? Keep checking in with TheStreet.com as we try and steer you through what could be a particularly ugly day.

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