Is this market "crash" a big deal? What's going on?

Question

I've just heard about it all day, whats happening? is it a big deal? to who?

Answer 1

If you work in that field, it's a big deal, but not world-shaking. To the average person, you won't notice the difference.
Remember the 684.81 point drop after 9/11/01? The drop was temporary, as they always are.
On the "Black Monday" of 1987, the US stock marked lost 22.7% of its value; pretty significant. Many investors regarded this as a "paper loss," meaning that it was only on paper. If you didn't sell, you wouldn't lose anything because the price would come back up after time. A lot of "average" people bought stock at this time, knowing that its value would go up.

Answer 2

A lot of analysts have said that the market was "overheated", that with GM and FORD in the red, and a housing collapse, it made no sense for the market to be doing well. If this is the realization of that, it could be pretty bad to people holding equities (stocks). Interest-rate-sensitive stocks should be OK, becuase this would mean interest rates will stay low or go down. Oil and Gold should be OK (although they were not today because almost EVERYTHING was down) because they are safe havens when times are bad. I'd think the tech stocks will be in for a beating.

On the other hand, there's a saying that "if we had good reason to think the market would sink lower, it would have done so today" and that it's impossible to predict the future because ALL of those predictions are wrapped up in the price right now.