Markets across the world are down today, including the US, which is down 0.67%. The main issue is the hardening of lawmaker positions on the fiscal cliff. Since the US has been the strongest and largest economy in the world lately, investors worry that if the US slows down next year because the fiscal cliff is unresolved it might slow down foreign markets as well.
Europe is in recession and the Chinese market hit a new low for the year. There is new talk that Italy will have to be bailed out in 2013, along with Spain and the sinkhole that is Greece.
As I wrote yesterday, the markets will pretty much follow the fiscal cliff negotiations until our august representatives reach an agreement, which will likely go down to the wire, that being year-end.