Wall Street Jittery After Drop

Wall Street has a case of nerves. After last week's market drop, the worst in five years, investors shouldn't expect any more "Merger Mondays" for some time to come, the New York Times predicts. Instead opening the week with big new deals, to send the market to new highs, banks and private equity firms spent the weekend trying to figure out what to do with higher debt costs on pending deals.

All indicators show a continued volatile period ahead. It's as if the market has taken a sudden U-turn, switching from complacency about risk to hysteria, said one expert. "When you have this reversal, the markets are throwing the baby out with the bathwater," he warned. (More Wall Street stories.)