I think a lot of the things we've seen in the stock market have nothign to do with market factors like supply and demand, but rampant speculation.

Look at gas prices due to the hurricane. I saw one company push their gas from $3.63 to $5.48 in one day. ONE DAY.  They didn't get a gas delivery that day; supply did not go down so low that they figured they had to hold out for months on this one shipment.  Nobody made a run on the gas station with that kind of price, so it couldn't have been demand!  People were saying the wholesalers were bumping their prices, so the gas stations had to bump their's.  I call shenanigans.  If they had to buy more gas, RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT, then yes, upping the price makes sense. 

But it has nothing to do with that.  It is merely people panicing, and the media flooding the market with this information that makes other people panic.  Take the recent House vote on the proposed Bailout bill.  Did people need to know if it was passed or not? Yes.  Did people need to know who voted yes and who voted no?  Yes.  Did they need to know it all in real time, as it unfolded and try to buy and sell stocks based on that information?  NO!

In this age of informaiton, too many people are quick to look at every peice of 'news' that someone posts on the internet or on TV and accept it as fact, and to take instant gratification from it, rather than taking the time to digest it.  Information is power, but too much information is worse than none with the way people are acting these days.