Stocks plunge amid investor anxiety

>>> good evening and while we wish we had better news, it just might be this way for a while because the problem is not ours alone. this was another terrible day for the market. this time fueled by fears about the health of banks , at least one big one here in the u.s., but mostly banks in france. but since the economy is truly global, it's being felt here and we still have our own problems in a big way. starting today with the dow down 520, that's 4 1/2% of it's value. other indexes, the broader markets were also sharply lower, the nasdaq and the s&p 500 both down 10% of their value.

>> reporter: a lot of the selling today was driven by rumors coming out of europe that france would be the next country to get its credit rating downgraded. that puts its banks in jeopardy and more bad news for stocks back home. another plunge on wall street mixed with fallout from yesterday's fed announcement that interest rates could remain low, which will mean lower profit for america's banks .

>> the problem is the big gest banks are just too big.

>> it starts with bad debt from countries like italy and greece. that spells trouble for u.s. banks that are invested in european.

>> we have been in europe for hundreds of years, so we continue to do business there, we have manageable exposure to all the banks .

>> and it's not just banks stuck in the downdraft.

>> we will see some significant ups and downs as investors begin to price in a slower economy, weaker earnings and that typically means lower stock prices.

>> in los angeles , investors are worried not just about stocks, but from meager returns from bank accounts and cds and money markets.

>> i have to work a few more years.

>> i moved into cd because it's growing slower than inflation.

>> 74-year-old retirees live in his income.

>> i believe in the growth of america and within reason, if i did pull my money out of the market now, where would i put it?

>> reporter: and once again, brian, a lot of people felt that the safest place to put their money was in gold. at one point today, gold hit a report $1,800 an ounce.

>> maria, thanks as always.