Photograph of traders at the NY Stock Exchange today by Richard Drew/AP

The U.S. stock markets fell this morning, due to ongoing concerns about the European debt crisis and the conflict between North Korea and South Korea. Bloomberg News reports, "Stocks plunged from Tokyo to London and New York, dragging the MSCI World Index to a nine-month low, and commodities slid as concern grew that Spain’s ailing banks signal a widening debt crisis and as tension mounted on the Korean peninsula... The MSCI gauge of 23 developed nations’ stocks fell 2.9 percent at 10:55 a.m. in New York to the lowest intraday level since August."

A currency strategist says, “It’s like Murphy’s law. When you don’t want something to happen, it happens. The Korea story"—North Korea announced it's severing all ties to South Korea—"just happens at the wrong time when the global market is already jittery. I worry more about what’s going on in Europe. We’re going back to nervousness about the banking sector.”

The Dow is currently under 10,000, at 9875 (down 1.9%); the Nasdaq lost 2.13% and S&P 500 fell 1.95%.