Stocks plunge after US recession made official

[Bindare_Dundat]

The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy .

Stocks got hammered Monday, as investors bailed out following confirmation that the U.S. is mired in a recession and indications that it's likely to continue for some time.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 680 points, its fourth-biggest single-session decline on a point basis ever. The decline was 7.7% in percentage terms - the 12th worst percentage one-day decline ever.

[tu_holmes]

Yeah... interesting how it's only a recession now that Bush is on the way out.

Kind of odd isn't it?

[Bindare_Dundat]

Yeah... interesting how it's only a recession now that Bush is on the way out.

Kind of odd isn't it?

I guess they were hoping no one would notice. 

[Dan-O]

OK...  what I don't get is, why does anybody HAVE to make it "official?"

The economy has been in a state of negative growth for some time now.  That's certainly not been any secret.  Does someone have to officially acknowledge "yes, there IS an elephant in the room."  I mean anyone with a brain can see there's a recession going on.  So why is the market just now having this knee-jerk reaction (as per usual) to what's been under their collective noses this whole time?