Wall Street Takes A Spill

U.S. stock markets fell over 3% today— Dow -3.56% (-289.60 points), Nasdaq -3.88%, S&P 500 -4.28%—over fears in the banking sectors. Though Bank of America announced a better-than-expected first quarter profit, CEO Ken Lewis said there are still many credit problems. The market had been gaining over the past six weeks but now an asset manager told Bloomberg News, "We’re going to get a lot of earnings releases this week and by and large they’re going to be disappointing. Besides, we’ve had a very sharp run-up in the market. So I see a period of consolidation now, maybe a week or two of declines."