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Wall Street woes were the Story of the Day. The three networks were unanimous that the 311-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average should lead their newscasts. Only last Thursday, the average closed at 14000 for the first time; this latest decline leaves it at 13473.

There was a consensus among all three financial correspondents that a slowdown in sales of new homes was the economic statistic the precipitated the sell-off in stocks: "housing data much lower than expected"--CNBC's Maria Bartiromo; "fears that the real estate market is hurting more than previously thought"--CBS' Kelly Wallace; "home prices continue to fall and the glut of unsold homes continues to grow"--ABC's Betsy Stark (subscription required). In addition all three concurred that there are signs of a credit crunch. "Lenders are tightening their standards," was how CBS' Wallace put it while CNBC's Bartiromo expected that "the number of deals will slow down" and ABC's Stark saw that "the mergers and acquisitions behind the market's boom could be disappearing." What else? ABC's Stark thought the market had overreached and was "ripe for a fall." CNBC's Bartiromo heard people realize that "now it is time to take some money off the table." And both Wallace and Bartiromo cited the threat of a rising price of crude oil to economic growth.

Andrew Tyndall 8/5/07 4:58:16 am

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