STEVE INSKEEP, host: NPR's business news starts with the return of the bears.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: When stock markets fall about 10 percent over a period of time, that's considered a correction. If stocks fall 20 percent or more, they are generally considered to have entered a bear market. Unless there's a rebound, some of the broad market indices around the world have already entered bear territory, although the best known are not quite there yet. Even after all the selling of recent days, the S&P 500 is off 17 percent, so far. The NASDAQ has lost 18 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down a mere 15 percent.
When stocks fall 20 percent or more over a period of time, they're generally considered to have entered a bear market. Unless there's a rebound, some of the broad market indexes around the world have entered this territory.