{"id":71,"date":"2008-01-22T14:01:50","date_gmt":"2008-01-22T22:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web2innovations.com\/money\/2008\/01\/22\/wall-street-plunged-but-does-it-affect-the-web-20\/"},"modified":"2008-01-22T14:01:50","modified_gmt":"2008-01-22T22:01:50","slug":"wall-street-plunged-but-does-it-affect-the-web-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web2innovations.com\/money\/2008\/01\/22\/wall-street-plunged-but-does-it-affect-the-web-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall Street plunged but does it affect the Web 2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wall Street plunged at the opening of trading Tuesday, propelling the Dow Jones<\/a> industrials down about 300 points after an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve<\/a> failed to assuage investors<\/a> fearing a recession in the United States.<\/p>\n

U.S. markets joined stock exchanges around the world that have fallen precipitously in recent days amid concerns that a downturn might spread around the world. U.S. bonds<\/a> were mixed, with investors seeking safer investments as stocks plummeted. The oil price, by contrast, fell amid expectations that a downturn would depress demand for energy.<\/p>\n

The Fed’s decision to cut its federal funds rate to 3.50% and the discount rate, the interest it charges to lend directly to banks, came a week before the central bank’s regularly scheduled meeting, a sign that the Fed recognized the seriousness of the world financial situation. But there were already fears in the markets before the Fed move that an interest rate wouldn’t be enough to prevent a recession. The cut was the biggest one-day rate move by the Fed since it lowered rates by a full percentage point in December 1991, when the country was trying to emerge from recession.<\/p>\n

In the first hour of trading, the Dow was down 293.70<\/font>, or 2.43 percent, at 11,805.60. The Dow was last below 12,000 in March 2007. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index<\/a> was off 32.49<\/font>, or 2.45 percent, at 1,292.70, while the Nasdaq<\/a> composite index fell 66.82<\/font>, or 2.86 percent, to 2,273.20.<\/p>\n

It was the first time the Fed altered the target federal funds rate between scheduled meetings since the markets reopened after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

It’s been a black year so far for stocks. The SP 500<\/a> index, the broadest measure of the stock market<\/a>, has suffered its worst annual start ever, giving up about 13 percent in just three weeks. The Dow is down about 12 percent since the beginning of the year, and the Nasdaq is down approximately 15 percent.<\/p>\n

On the other side the government bond prices surged as stocks fell and investors<\/a> fled to safer securities. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, sank to 3.53 percent from 3.63 percent late Friday.<\/p>\n

Both Asian and European markets have also fallen seriously where the Asian market was hit harder. Japan’s Nikkei<\/a> stock average closed down 5.65 percent — its biggest percentage drop in nearly a decade. The German\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s DAX<\/a> for instance fell to the level of mid 2007, yet higher than the levels of January 2007.<\/p>\n

Did the crisis affect the major Internet players anyway?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Below is a quick outlook of some of the more important Internet players and how their stocks performed for today. Clearly everything was colored in red.<\/p>\n

Company \/ Stock Symbol \/ Last Trade \/ Change \/ Mkt Cap<\/p>\n