Why were they clapping at the closing bell, after the DJIA dropped 415 points?

[begin_within]

That struck me as very weird - the news is talking about a huge drop in the stock market, and they show the closing bell, and the people standing on the balcony there were clapping and smiling.... what are they so happy about?

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Maybe the fact that it didn't close down 500 points?

There was a hefty rebound in the last hour.

[tkmorris]

2. They ALWAYS applaud the bell

Plus, the bell was rung today by some woman who was retiring, so they were applauding her. It does seem a bit dischordant though, I agree.

[Kahuna]

3. Happy to see the close of trading?

:shrug:

[patrice]

4. A lot of folk were thinking it needed a "correction".

"Bubble" prophylaxis.

Some say the Dow should really be around 11K.

[jannyk]

5. actually there was quite a bit of booing going on eom

[Warpy]

6. Because the day was OVER

and a near panic didn't develop into a panic, nor did the day have to close early because it was automatically shut down once the threshhold was reached.

On the down side, the Nikkei, which only lost 0.5% yesterday, is down over 600 points and the Hong Kong exchange is taking a hit. Oz is down about 3% as of half an hour ago.

The Shanghai exchange was incredibly overvalued. This correction was inevitable.