Stocks on Wall Street Rack Up More Big Losses

Roth stressed, however, that those are only benchmarks, and looking for a bottom is a dangerous undertaking.

"Most of the time, a market's final low is going to be at no particular place historically. Widely advertised support levels are broken, and then the market makes a base afterward." Asked if there would be any indication that a rally would come, Roth said, "The market will just do it."

Turning to financial companies, Citigroup (C Quote) saw a brief glimmer of hope as Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed, the largest individual shareholder in Citi, announced he would raise his stake in the staggering bank to 5% from 4%.

Alwaleed also endorsed Citi CEO Vikram Pandit, saying management is taking all necessary steps to survive the current climate. Alwaleed's moves weren't sufficient to quell investors' worries, and Citi shares tumbled as much as 20%.

Fellow blue-chip banking titan JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote), meanwhile, is getting set to cut about 10% of its workforce, according to a report by Reuters.

Also on the Dow, Boeing (BA Quote) said it would lay off 800 workers in a Kansas facility thanks to delays and terminations of various projects.

Bloomberg reported that industrial conglomerate and Dow stock General Electric (GE Quote) was in talks to secure investments from several Asian sovereign wealth funds.

Among technology companies, Yahoo! (YHOO Quote) is still in talks to purchase Time Warner's (TWX Quote) AOL business, according to another report by Bloomberg.

Separately, Microsoft (MSFT Quote), whose offer to merge with Yahoo! had earlier been rebuffed by the Internet company, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is planning to issue debt to pay for operating and general expenses.