INSTANT VIEW: Stock market plunges in late-day selloff

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks plunged for a seventh straight session on Thursday, with the Dow sliding below 9,000 for the first time in more than five years, as investors worried recent moves by authorities worldwide to thaw frozen credit markets might not be enough to avert a global recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average sank 668.40 points, or 7.22 percent, to end unofficially at 8,589.70, based on the latest available data. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index tumbled 74.58 points, or 7.57 percent, to finish unofficially at 910.36. The Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted 95.21 points, or 5.47 percent, to close unofficially at 1,645.12.

The following are comments on the market decline:

COMMENTS:

SASHA KOSTADINOV, A SMALL-CAP FUND MANAGER AND RESEARCH ANALYST FOR SHAKER INVESTMENTS, WHICH MANAGES $100 MILLION IN CLEVELAND, OHIO

"It's absolute carnage. Yesterday, more than 5,000 stocks traded at new lows. It looks like we're going to beat that one today.

"There are companies that have reported good results, nice growth and they get sold, too. The market is in a phase now that it doesn't believe in anything. You throw on the gasoline that people have lost faith in our government institutions and that's created a whole level of fear. Frankly, I don't know .. I think we're kind of operating without a net here. I don't know what will turn the sentiment.

"This is just unbelievable.

"There are plenty of opportunities here if you had cash. (But) frankly, I would tell (anyone with cash) to hold onto it for now. Start putting together a list.

"I've never seen trading like this. Never. Even with the Internet crash, which decimated technology, you had someplace you could relatively hide. There's not a place to hide now."

AL MEYERS, CO-PORTFOLIO MANAGER, AHA DIVERSIFIED EQUITY FUND, GRAND RAPIDS MICHIGAN, HAS BEEN MANAGING MONEY 30 YEARS

"To tell you the absolute truth, I've been writing letters today to my clients. We're saying don't panic.

"How much are off here? Holy shit -- maybe we better panic."

"This is the most difficult environment that I have ever seen.

"Near term, I had hoped that the coordinated rate cuts would have given us some strength, and they didn't. The next hope -- God, I hate that word 'hope' -- is that as earnings announcements come out in the next several weeks, that there will be some positive surprises in there and investors start to differentiate between companies.

"The world isn't going away. Financial markets aren't going away. My hope is people start looking at these numbers and get a little bit of reality setting in. Right now we've got panic going on, there's no two ways about it.

"We've modestly increased the risk level of our portfolio. We went into some of the beaten down energy and industrial stocks, a little bit. We have very little cash. At some point in time, the consumer staple trade gets a little bit old."

CASSANDRA TOROIAN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER OF BELL ROCK CAPITAL, PAOLI, PENNSYLVANIA

"I think that (low volume due to Jewish holiday) is having an effect.

"I think it's really shorts ... It's really a conundrum: on the one hand there was a lot of money sitting on the sidelines waiting for the shorts to come back into the market because they felt like there was a lopsided market without them, on the other, you take the short ban off and look what has happened in one day."

MIRKO MIKELIC, PORTFOLIO MANAGER OF FIFTH THIRD BANK

"Consumer confidence (is) falling right off the cliff is probably the biggest thing right now."

"We need some recovery going on in financial markets just to settle things down right now.

"Outside of the financial sector, there are issues with big-ticket discretionary consumer purchases like vehicles, so yes, auto stocks are absolutely among the most vulnerable."

BOBBY HARRINGTON, HEAD OF BLOCK TRADING, UBS, STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT

"(The) GM news didn't help, Pru preannounced (and it) looked like numbers were really weak. And there is that fear and worry that we've had for days. There are a lot of big sell orders on the bell."

MICHAEL FARR, PRESIDENT OF FARR, MILLER & WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON D.C.

"This strikes me as raw fear. This strikes me as capitulation selling. You have to clear the sell orders.

"The market will bottom somewhere between where we are right now and whatever number you, the collective you, come up with ... Something in here is going to start to look cheap and people will say, 'I am buying that.'"

STEPHEN SCHORK, EDITOR, THE SCHORK REPORT, PHILADELPHIA, PA

"The oil stocks are reflecting the oil market, there's real concern over demand. We know that demand was weak this summer with (gasoline) prices at over $4 and I think it's a reflection of that.

"The bubble has obviously burst in oil and the news of the extraordinary OPEC meeting in November is a clear signal that they are concerned."

FADEL GHEIT, OIL ANALYST, OPPENHEIMER, NEW YORK

"I believe this is the second largest drop in my career for Exxon. This is basically traders throwing everything overboard to prevent the whole ship from sinking. When you sell Exxon, this is the last thing you sell or dump.

"There is a margin squeeze. Nobody knows now how deep this black hole. The market can assess any risk but the biggest risk is the fear of the unknown."

CHRIS JARVIS, SENIOR ANALYST, CAPROCK RISK MANAGEMENT, HAMPTON FALLS, NEW HAMPSHIRE:

"The confidence crisis is strengthening its a grip around financial markets, spreading fear of a major global recession, and commodities across the board including oil as well as the equity markets are selling off aggressively.

"Caught up in the selling are Exxon and Chevron as equity investors sell everything given the gloom and doom clouds creating an eclipse over the globes' financial outlook."

MICHAEL WOOLFOLK, SENIOR CURRENCY STRATEGIST, BANK OF NEW YORK-MELLON, NEW YORK

"The risk aversion is still very high. What's happening now is not tied to any new developments per se. Nothing came out today that we weren't already aware of. What you're seeing is players exiting the market on risk aversion and speculators pushing us to new lows for profit.

"This is a terrible crisis we're in by any means, but I'm encouraged by the aggressive policy actions being taken the coordination being seen right now. The G7 meeting will be important. The rate cuts were a nice trial balloon and I'd expect countries to continue to work together.

"Meanwhile, things will continue to unwind for a while. It's very difficult to turn market sentiment around quickly."

JIM RITTERBUSCH, PRESIDENT, RITTERBUSCH & ASSOCIATES, GALLENA, ILLINOIS

"The weakness in the equity markets is all intertwined with the energy markets, with crude oil futures hitting new session lows here as traders weigh the implications of further weakening of demand for oil.

"The stock market has become the barometer, proxy if you will, for future economic demand expectations for oil."

FREDERIC DICKSON, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND MARKET STRATEGIST, D.A. DAVIDSON & CO, LAKE OSWEGO, OREGON

"We've had lousy retail same-store sales. With the Fed opening up the commercial paper market and no visible sign of restoration of normal credit movement, that is shaking investor confidence that the banking system at this point still has a long way to go before it get's fixed.

"The other thing is that I think we might see selling due to margin calls, hedge funds liquidating, and people who bought stock on margin are going to get margin calls. The further the stock market goes down, the more margin calls you get."

KEITH WIRTZ, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, FIFTH THIRD ASSET MANAGEMENT

"Things have changed since Labor Day, when the markets may have looked at the world as if the glass was half full. The market is now looking at things as if the glass is half-empty. The psychology of the market has been affected over the last six weeks.

"Investors need to brace for the volatility to continue and probably for more bad news to come before things get better.

"This is not the bottom yet. We need to have more bad news discounted in the marketplace, we need to officially hear we are in a recession, we need to have better visibility on company earnings and the credit market needs to show signs of relief before things get better."

GREG ORRELL, PORTFOLIO MANAGER OF THE $102 MILLION OCM GOLD FUND IN LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA

"Part of it is continual fear of economic contraction, which is driving deflationary fears, and you take down General Motors and people are looking at the ripple effect.

"The fear factor is still pretty high ... People are trying to figure out where these things end.

"People are questioning the credit quality of everybody. That's what it really comes down to."

PETER LEWIS, FUND MANAGER FOR MURPHY CAPITAL WHICH MANAGES $450 MILLION IN GLADSTONE, NEW JERSEY

"We picked right around 8,500 (on the Dow) as a psychological support level, where, if we break through that, we're looking to raise some cash because at that point there's no telling where the Dow is going to go, how much further this market can fall.

THOMAS RUSSO, PARTNER AT GARDNER RUSSO GARDNER

"It's sheer investor panic over the information flows that continue to frighten them.

"Investing has become a spectator sport and the daily amount of commentary is unsettling investors.

"It's a self-feeding frenzy -- you go to sleep and hear Japan is down, you wake up and hear Europe is down then you come in to work and markets here are down.

"It will go on until values become compelling."

ROB LUTTS, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, CABOT MONEY MANAGEMENT IN SALEM, MASS

"I think we're getting close to capitulation and I think usually you get volume with that but it appears to me like there's just a relentless liquidation coming from the institutional and retail side.

"We just saw some numbers today in terms of mutual fund redemptions that were very heavy -- I think there's an awful lot of folks pulling out of their retirement 401(k)s and things like that.

"There's a vacuum on the buy side, I think there's hardly anybody there.

"We are getting huge dislocations that we've never seen before and that to me is a sign that we're getting close to capitulation.

"We need to get through a week or two weeks without any company or country filing for bankruptcy.

"We need to have stability come back and that's going to take some time. I think it's going to be a dicey market for some time."