Well, it can go to zero... and you know what, we're still not done yet. Do you think Lehman will be the only bankruptcy in this fiasco? The bankruptcies haven't even started piling up, thats the next phase - people going out of business, and when that hits, the market will probably trade even lower. The market is doing a real correction now, where people are returning to simplistic roots and realizing its all a bunch of bullshit. When you buy a stock, you own a piece of paper, nothing more. So whats a whole lot of paper worth.. not 6700, in my opinion. Last I checked you can go into office depot and buy 1000 pieces of paper for pretty damn cheap
People think just because the stock market has been an insititution for 90 years, that its guaranteed. It isn't. And the stock market has been seriously altered from its origins. Back then, when a stock made a profit, it declared a dividend and the investor actually got a share of the profits. Investors took on risk in equities, and hopefully the profit existed and was higher than that of a return of a simple coupon bond. The market has moved away from its simplistic roots, and been replaced with this complex system that only the insiders truly understand. Remember, the stock market today (without dividends for 99.9% of stocks) is the BIGGEST PONZI SCHEME on this planet. And a lot of the big institutional buyers outweigh you - and they talk. A stock can have a crazy good quarter, yet if a bunch of hedge funds collaborate a sell off, you still lose. The stock market predicated on more money flowing in, then flowing out (more buyers = up, more sellers = down). If you buy, before other people buy, you make money. If you buy, and other people sell, you lose money.
If you don't understand this, don't buy stocks. It's all gambling nothing more.
Can't blame Obama for saying what he's saying, he's trying to get some confidence going. His job is to help the country, and right now the country needs confidence more than anything else. Truth is, if he wants confidence, he should fix the stock market system, make all companies declare a certain % of their profits dividends, or guarantee that profits will actually be returned to shareholders in one form or another. It won't be easy, but its doable... Put the power back in the shareholders hands - not just management, and the confidence will return. Hopefully, the stock market emerges better.