Dow Closes Down 520 Points, Reverses Tuesday Gains

The rollercoaster stock market took another downward turn Wednesday, with the Dow closing down 520 points, wiping out Tuesday’s recovery from a 600-point dip on Monday.

The bad news comes after a Tuesday announcement by the Federal Reserve that it will freeze low interest rates until 2013, and a one-day rally that raised the prospect that the dip would not lead to continued volatility. The Federal Reserve’s announcement was also accompanied by a dim view of the prospects for economic recovery, an uncertainty that has hurt investor confidence.

In addition to the S&P rating downgrade in the United States, the roiling debt crisis in Europe has fueled investor uncertainty. On Wednesday the Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell by 3.8 percent. Markets in Asia — boosted by late-day gains in the United States — fared slightly better, with Japan’s Nikkei Index showing a 1 percent gain.

According to the New York Times,

The plunge on Wall Street, which reached around 4 percent in late trading, drove home a powerful message to investors: That the rally of about 4.7 percent in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and other indexes on Tuesday had no basis to last.

Photo by Getty Images.