bear stears,lehman bros,merril lynch,and AIG are essentially gone. if B of A did'nt buy out merril,no doubt they would have followed in lehman's footsteps rapidly. we are talking about company's that define wall street and they are wiped out. i think there is going to be a longer than expected period of investor mistrust on wall street and we are going to languish for a while. this sentiment will definitely reverberate throughout the rest of the economy and market pyschology will exacerbate an already dire situation. tomorrow mornings Goldman sachs report will be the talk of the town and every word spoken will be scrutinized with the utmost intent. i said three months ago that my dow target is between 9800 and 9900. (for now).