Icahn Fears Big Stock Plunge as Housing, Food, Japan Crises Worsen

Wednesday, 16 Mar 2011 01:13 PM
By Greg Brown

Just a few weeks ago, the consensus among money managers seemed to be that better days were ahead. Stocks had doubled off the March 2009 low, U.S. jobs numbers were reasonable, and it looked like the Federal Reserve could finally take its foot off the gas on monetary easing.

What a difference a few headlines can make.

Food prices are through the roof, chaos continues in the Middle East, and the nuclear crisis in Japan is compounding an already horrific quake and tsunami disaster. In the best of times, these are bad economic and news trends. After a surprising bull run for stocks, it’s a flashing “sellâ€