Flucuating wildly again on Friday, the Dow ended down more than 300 points on fears the rest of the world's markets are headed into recession territory.  While not as grim a decline in stock value as many analyists had predicted today, the Dow is still down for the week and at its lowest level in 5 years.

Stocks all over the world tumbled as third-quarter earnings came in.  It's becoming increasingly obvious to many investors that the world economy is headed for a severe downturn.  Government interaction is doing little to quell concerns that the market won't be stablizing anytime soon.

Now at just over 8,300 points, the Dow is at its worst since April of 2003. It fell nearly 5.4% for the week.  Next week is not likely to bring any relief and most believe things will get even uglier.  With the holiday season right around the corner, recession fears and rising unemployment rates might make it a very unhappy holidays.