As Sovereign and Fifth Third crumble, will Dow have its worst tumble in history?


The merger of Wachovia Corporation (NYSE: WB) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) left investors to wonder who would be next to crumble. And that question was answered quickly: Sovereign Bancorp (NYSE: SOV) and National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC) are on deck -- down 68% and 57%, respectively in today's trading. Meanwhile, thanks to the Republican vote to sink the bailout bill, the Dow is down 677.

The good news is that today's decline is not going to be the biggest in history on a percentage basis. The record that still stands was set in October 1987, when the Dow fell 22.6% -- 508 points really meant something back then -- that's because the Dow was trading at 2,248 before the crash. It would take at least a 2,519 point decline in the Dow to beat that crash. But 21 years ago, the economy was in nowhere near as bad shape as it is today.

I hope I'm wrong but I would not be shocked if Sovereign and National City were no longer independent banks by the end of the week.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns Citi shares and has no financial interest in the other securities mentioned.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+64.2212,865.45
NASDAQ+22.482,926.36
S&P 500+8.581,351.22

Last updated: February 13, 2012: 01:46 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

19.035+0.16(+0.85)

Alcoa

10.35+0.06(+0.58)

Apple Inc

499.58+6.16(+1.25)

Google Inc 'A'

612.46+6.55(+1.08)

Bank of America

8.295+0.225(+2.79)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.91+0.01(+0.02)

Exxon Mobil Corp

84.41+0.61(+0.73)

Ford

12.57+0.13(+1.04)

Citigroup

33.39+0.465(+1.41)

IBM

192.74+0.32(+0.17)

Yahoo

16.155+0.015(+0.09)

Starbucks

49.23+0.41(+0.84)

Microsoft

30.58+0.085(+0.28)

Home Depot

46.07+0.74(+1.63)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1329158788632 ms.