INSTANT VIEW: Dow industrials end session in a bear market

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow industrials ended the session in a bear market on Wednesday as U.S. stocks fell on growing concerns about the toll record oil prices are taking on the economy and corporate profits.

COMMENTS:

JAMES CARON, HEAD OF GLOBAL RATES RESEARCH, MORGAN STANLEY, NEW YORK:

"We have one of the major central banks likely to raise rates tomorrow, and risk assets are responding. You are taking liquidity away when it is needed most. It's going to have consequences."

"This is a dangerous game. There is a lot of stresses out there, but it's a balancing act. The ECB is erring on the side of inflation, and the Fed is erring on the side of growth."

GEORGES YARED, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, YARED INVESTMENT RESEARCH, MINNEAPOLIS:

"Yes we're technically in a bear market now, but I don't see us going down all that much further from here.

"The next thing to look out for is going to be a series of pre-announcements, but I think it will be interesting to see how much of that is baked in already."

MARC PADO, U.S. MARKET STRATEGIST AND TECHNICAL ANALYST, CANTOR FITZGERALD & CO, SAN FRANCISCO:

"This is a capitulation of sorts. You've got volume 10 to 1 on the downside. Not big volume, but the ratio is very negative. I think we're seeing a capitulation of sorts and a sign that the market is really on its knees. The market needs a positive catalyst. It could be the jobs number. Crude has been a knife in our back and it keeps twisting."

KEITH HEMBRE, CHIEF ECONOMIST, FIRST AMERICAN FUNDS, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA:

"The underlying reason is a very weak domestic economic environment that would not be conducive to profits meeting where consensus expectations have been.

"The one added wrinkle that we really didn't anticipate but has added a furthering of downward pressure to equities in general has been the continued escalation of oil prices.

"You've got pretty strong growth in the emerging markets, which has certainly been a support to earnings for these large companies in an environment where domestic demand growth has been weak. But it's also on the flip side been a very meaningful negative in that it has continued to drive oil prices up, which is a negative for the equity markets on a valuation basis."

"Twenty percent (in the Dow industrials drop) is just kind of an artificial line in the sand. It's more a validation that all hell has already broken."

WILLIAM SULLIVAN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, JVB FINANCIAL GROUP, BOCA RATON, FLORIDA: