Flickr: Creative Commons by jef poskanzer

This morning the stock market took another hit, dropping 600 points shortly after the opening bell, sliding below the 8000 mark (first time since April, 2003). Bloomberg News writes:

U.S. stocks sank, capping the worst week ever for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, on concern the escalating credit crises will snuff out consumer spending…

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index tumbled 35.35 points, or 3.9 percent, to 874.57 at 10:46 a.m. in New York, extending its weekly drop to more than 20 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 325.45, or 3.8 percent, to 8,253.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index retreated 2.9 percent to 1,597.48. More than five stocks dropped for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

The S&P 500 has plunged for eight straight days, its longest losing streak since 1996. The declines pushed both the S&P 500 and Dow average down more than 40 percent from their peaks last October and set them on course for their worst yearly returns since the Great Depression.