Big drop on Wall Street

Inauguration Days are typically tough on Wall Street, but this is ridiculous. Today's 300-plus drop on the Dow could be one of the worst Inaugural sessions ever. From Marketbeat:

Since the date of the inaugural was moved up to January 20 for the swearing-in of Franklin Delano Roosevelt for his second term in 1937, the date (or nearest trading day) of the swearing-in has been lackluster. The best day was Jan. 21, 1985, the day after the swearing-in of Ronald Reagan for a second term, when the Dow rose 2.77%. Otherwise, out of the last 10 January inaugural days following the end of the previous full presidential term, just two have ended with the Dow higher (1985 and 1997), and the rest lower, with the worst day being the -2.09% selloff endured on the day Mr. Reagan was sworn in for his first term.

Financial issues really took it on the chin, with both Citigroup and Bank of America having especially bad days. Also, shares in the money manager State Street plunged more than 54 percent after the bank reported a 71 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings and warned of a difficult year. The Dow is back under 8000. Here's the NYT stock story.