As the Markets Churn

So Monday was rough, but it wasn't the market meltdown some people were expecting. The Dow took its sharpest decline since September 11, 2001, just more than 500 points. It wouldn't have broken that milestone number except for a last dive in the final fifteen minutes of the day. Even so, it was just under a 4.5 percent drop.

Before I head off to bed for the night, it's probably worthwhile to take a look at markets around the world to see what might be coming up tomorrow. Here are some Asian markets, and here are some markets from Europe. What you see when you click over will be different from what I see right now, but Europe is not doing as badly as Asia (where some markets were closed Monday, which means that Tuesday is the first chance for them to react to the troubles on Wall Street). The Nikkei, Shanghai, and Taiwan markets are flirting around just below 5 percent, but Hang Seng (Hong Kong) has passed a 5 percent drop, and Seoul has fallen more than 6 percent. European markets, reacting to the drop in the Dow but already having had a crack at the Lehman and Merrill Lynch news, are falling but not as drastically. Indices in London, Paris, and Frankfurt are--at least at this point--are down by less than 2 percent. Will a good night's sleep for me help anything? Not in the international markets, probably, but at least my own well-being will be improved. Let's hope things look better in the morning.