Sept. 15: Dow 10,917 (down 504 points); trading range, 566 points
Wall Street greeted a new week with more turmoil in the financial sector leading the S&P 500 to its largest one-day percentage drop since 9/11.
During the weekend before the session, Lehman Brothers (OTC: LEHMQ) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) for $50 billion and AIG (NYSE: AIG) began looking for massive amounts of cash to save itself from failure.
Lehman gave up the ghost after no buyers were willing to step up to save the 158-year-old firm, and the company listed $613 billion in debt.
Meanwhile, the feds told AIG to look elsewhere for $40 billion to shore up its balance sheet, leading many to suspect it would take much more cash to set things straight.
They were right -- we're currently at $150 billion and counting.
Greg Tucker is the executive editor of OptionsZone.com.