, Columnist
The Coming Market Freakout
This year's sell-off may not yet be fully justified by facts on the ground, but the risks are becoming clearer.
Another one of those days.
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One of these days, one of these market freakouts will be the real thing. Today was at least a preview of coming attractions.
Stocks fell deep into the red this morning, with the S&P 500 touching its lowest level since May, before recovering ground in the afternoon. Why? Who really knows? But a couple of big corporate-profit reports this morning were ominous: Caterpillar Inc. and 3M Co. both released quarterly results and full-year forecasts that made investors sad in some way, adding to growing fears that a long corporate-profit boom is fading.