Wednesday's Market: Dow Closes Below 10,000 for First Time Since October

It's 4 p.m. EST, do you know where your stocks finished? You might not want to find out. On the heels of a global market meltdown, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 318 points, or 3.1%, to 9,973 -- the first time it's finished below 10,000 since Oct. 18, 2000. The Nasdaq Composite Index , which is nearly 60% off its all-time high, ended behind 43 points, or 2.1%, to 1,972 -- the second time it's closed below 2,000 this week.

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This morning, international credit rating agency Fitch put 19 Japanese banks under negative review, citing growing concern over the impact of falling share prices and bad loans. Worries about European and U.S. exposure to those banks -- which could include anything from loans to Japanese companies, to currency positions, or even the simple fact of doing business in Asia -- rocked market indices on both continents.

If only it was just beef Europe had to worry about. As a result of the credit scare, London's FTSE 100 ended down 125 points, or 2.2%, to 5596 -- its lowest close since Dec. 1998. Germany's Xetra Dax was also hit hard, ending down 113 points, or 2%, to 5127. And Paris' CAC-40 lost 60 points, or 1.2%, to 5127.

Elsewhere, rumors that the Bank of Japan is in emergency talks with a large financial institution and an earnings downgrade on European banks by Goldman Sachs helped send global markets into a tailspin. During the day, traders talked about massive selling from a hedge fund, not yet identified, that was long European stocks. ...